Web of Dreams
by aberistwith
Summary: Tohru's and Yuki's budding romance causes problems for the Sohma family. What will Akito do when he finds out about this? Rated T for possible future maturity. please review
1. Chapter 1

**_Fruits Basket_**

**Chapter one**

Yuki Sohma walked into the lunchroom. He spotted Tohru sitting all be herself at a table, eating her lunch timidly. She kept glancing at another table, where the Yuki fanclub girls were laughing and pointing fingers at her. Suddenly, they all stood-up and went to sit with Tohru, talking quietly. Their backs were to Yuki, but he could see Tohru's face, tears brimming in her beautiful blue eyes.

A rush of anger swept over Yuki, he marched up to the table. "Excuse me, but Tohru, I believe I need some help with my project, would you please come over to my house tonight, so we can work on it together. I'd really like that."

Tohru looked-up at him, confused for a split-second, then understanding filled her face, "Oh, ummm, I'd love to help you Yuki, I'll just have to check with my grandfather, you could walk home with me, while I tell him, and then we'll go to your house. Oh by the way, how's Shigure doing? Last time I went over, he was still working on his book."

Yuki smiled, a loving smile at Tohru, which made the fanclub girls scream. As Yuki sat down, he noticed that there were still tears in her eyes. He leaned over to brush them from her cheeks. "Why are you crying miss Honda? Was it something I said?" He made as though he'd not seen the girls teasing her.

"Oh no Yuki! Nothing you could ever say, would make me cry. I was just thinking of my mother." She looked at the girls, who had their gazes affixated on Yuki, who was glaring at them.

He knew they were teasing her about her mother, "How cruel of you. How dare you make miss Honda feel inferior to you. How dare you." He spoke in calm tones, though his words were harsh.

Tohru's eyes brimmed again with tears, "No Yuki, it's okay, I don't mind. I love my mother and nothing they say can ever change that... You don't have to keep protecting me...I'll have to live one day without you always here..." she stood-up and covered her face, "Excuse me please, I think I have something in my eye..." she ran out of the lunchroom, past Hana and Uo, who quickly followed her.

Once Yuki had seen that she wasn't alone, he turned his glare back to the girls. "You have no idea how much your words just hurt her. I hope you know that everything that hurts her, hurts me too. She means more to me, than any of you could possibly ever mean to anyone. I will not let you forget this." Yuki stood with righteous rage, and left the girls crying behind him as he stormed out of the lunchroom.

He found Tohru in the company of her two girlfriends, along with Kyo, Momiji and Hatsuharu. They were all up on the roof, where no-one would hear her sobbing into Arisa's shirt. Uo looked up at Yuki as he nealt down in front of Tohru, "What was it that they were saying to you?"

Tohru just started to cry harder, "Yuki, I want to go home, please, just take me home." she managed through sobs.

He nodded, and took her by the hand, and led her home. It was all Yuki could to to keep from hugging, her, but he knew that once he did she would have to walk home with a rat.

Once they walked in the door, Shigure poked his head around to see who it was. When he saw Tohru crying, he was there immediately. "Oh Tohru, whatever is the matter? What did Yuki say to you?"

"Nothing Yuki said..." she just began to cry harder, and ran up to her room.

Yuki went to follow, but Shigure held him back. "What's all that about Yuki?" Yuki stopped. "Some girls at shcool were teasing her about... about her mother."

Shigure's hand went to his head, "Oh dear. That would have opened scars that had barely begun to heal, all her anguish over her mother's death will have been brought back to her, most likely much harder than before. You didn't _do _anything to the girls did you?" Shigure looked at Yuki's angry face.

"I only said things, that made them cry." He smiled wickedly, "I wanted to do much more than say things though..." he spoke quietly, more to himself than to Shigure, but he heard it none the less.

Shigure sighed, "I wonder if Hatori has a degree ih phsycology..." Shigure trudged off to give him a call.

Yuki, now left to his own devices, decided that he would go upstairs and comfort Tohru. He knocked on her door, and walked in. "Tohru, is everything alright?" He saw her lying on her bed, her face burried in her pillow.

Upon hearing his voice, she wiped her face and sat up. She turned to face him, and, she smiled. "You don't have to smile, if you don't feel like smiling. I know you're hurting inside, but it's alright, you can show me... I can help you." He sat down on the bed next to her.

At his words, she began sobbing uncontrolably into her hands. "I don't know what those girls said to you, but whatever they did say, it means nothing. You live here, with people who love you, and if they're jealous of you, they'll do anything to hurt you. I'm so sorry you had to be a part of this. I'm sorry that those girls were treating you so badly, and I know that it's only because of me that they're doing it. I'm sorry you had to know me." Yuki stopped talking, and looked-up into Tohru's big bright blue eyes, "But, now that you do know me, I'm never going to let you out of my sight, you hear? I'll always be there to protect you from everything. Because Tohru I lov-"

"TOHRU! Are you alright? Tohru!" Momiji cried as he ran through the door. Tohru was still staring into Yuki's eyes, her tears having been swallowed into her sleeves, which were now drenched.

Momiji ran upstairs, and pounced on Tohru, beaking her gaze with Yuki. A faint pouf was heard as Momiji turned into a rabbit. Kyo and Hatsuharu joined them shortly after, both quite out of breath.

"Tohru...are...you...okay?" Kyo manadged through deep breaths of air.

Tohru looked-up, tears of joy brimming anew in her eyes. "Kyo, Momiji, Hatsuharu...you didn't have to come..."

"I know, but we wanted to, we were worried about you, and...wanted to make sure you were okay..." Hatsuharu said, he sounded much less tired than Kyo was. Just as tears treamed down her face again, she was surrounded by quite a few 'poofs' as a cat, and a cow all joined in her bedroom.

Shigure, hearing all of this, decided it a good time to give Tohru some time to herself, and gathered all of the animals out of the room, along with their clothes. Yuki and Tohru were left alone, once again.

"Thank-you Yuki, you've made me so much more happy. I'm sorry for being so silly, it's just, I'd had a dream about her last night, and...they...they just...said all the wrong things...and, I was already feeling emotional." She'd stopped crying by now, and was almost back to her usual self.

"Tohru, just remember that from now on I'm going to be with you all the time. I'll stick to you like glue, because...seeing you so sad, makes me sad also. I want to make you as happy as possible... because I love y-"

"Miss Tohru, Yuki, how are we all doing this afternoon?" Hatori entered the room. Mr. phsycology walked-up to the bed, and looked at Yuki. Yuki, who was by now quite frustrated at the fact that every time he tried to proclaim his feelings for Tohru he got inturrupted by another member of the Sohma family, stood-up and let Hatori sit down. "Now Miss Honda, I hear that you were being teased about your mother."

At this, Tohru burst into tears again, Yuki, flashed an angry face in the direction of Hatori. "You had to go and mention her mother didn't you?" Tohru cried even harder, and went back to her pillow, all the progress lost.

"Now, now Miss Honda. Don't take what Yuki is saying as a means that I am trying to hurt you, just that, well...I understand that it was these girls that always give you a hard time, because you are affiliated with the Sohmas?" Hatori was saying,

Tohru's waterworks were beginning to slow slightly, she nodded her head "Uhhun..." She said quietly, her voice muffled by her pillow. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry for not being strong enough to d-deal with it on my own...I just..."

"Tohru, are we saying you're not strong? No we're not, what those girls did was very wrong, and Yuki here was correct in hurting them." At this Tohru sat-up.

Hatori flashed a smile at Yuki, to which he was quite taken aback "I didn't...hurt them physically..."

"Oh no Yuki, Princes don't hit...no, see we have here quite a master of what I like to call, mental torture. See these girls are obsessed enough with their Prince, that what he said to them, could lead to the utter annihilation oh their feelings, actually, that was quite a good plan Yuki, only it will make things worse for Tohru...or perhaps you didn't realize how persistent girls are, especially crazy fanclub girls. See, when you go to school tomorrow, you will most likely find that the whole school will have turned on you, Tohru. Yuki, you will not be able to do anything about it...but then again, I may be wrong...we'll just have to wait and see...won't we?" and with that, Hatori left the room.

Tohru's tears stopped for good. "Wow, that was the strangest talk i've ever had in my entire life...now I want to go to school tomorrow, just to see if what he said is true...that's weird." Tohru said to Yuki, she laughed, all thoughts of her previous afternoon forgotten, and eagerly awaiting school the next day.

Hatori stayed the night, to make sure that everything was still alright in the morning, but he didn't think that Tohru would be that hard of a person to cheer-up. She was a generally happy, positive person to begin with, so when she smiled, and waved good-bye with her cheery smile in the morning, he wasn't surprised.

"Wow Tori, you really are a miracle worker."

"No, I just had to inspire some independance in her. Yuki ruined it all by saying that he was going to be by her side all day like glue, making her feel comforted, but also like a little kid again, I gave her confidence to see what a new day will bring. Kanna told me that once, and Tohru is a lot like she was..."

" Now Hatori, she's much much too young for you, why don't you let Yuki and Kyo have her. She'd be much better suited to them, than to you." Hatori shook his head.


	2. Chapter 2

When they got to school, Yuki and Kyo followed her to all her classes, making her feel like a princess being escorted everywhere. At lunch , all the Sohmas, plus Arisa and Saki, formed a protective group around her, but when she had to go to the bathroom, it seemed a bit strange that they all, being boys, follow her, so Tohru went alone. In that short time, between walking to the bathroom, and back to her friends, she was surrounded by the Prince Yuki fanclub. The girls who had teased her yesterday came up front to her. "Honda, we're sorry we teased you yesterday, and if you tell Yuki that we've apologized, we'd like that allot. But you're still our rival, and...even though we can't hurt you, because we'd be hurting the Prince too, we'd like you to know that we wish very dearly to hurt you.

" Tohru didn't know what to say to this, so when Yuki and Kyo came shouting at the girls, she said simply, "Guys, they were only apologizing about yesterday." She glanced at Yuki, whose face she was unable to read. He felt a mixture of love and sorrow for Tohru, because, not the she's involved with the Sohmas, the curse is rubbing off on her also. Yuki wasn't going to let it consume her though, he couldn't, he loved her... Though, after that, Tohru became once again as her usual self.

Throughout the day, Tohru laughed at funny things, like usual and when school was over, she had work, and so off she went. She worked harder than usual, and, despite Momiji being there, it was quite an accomplished evening. She got to meet Momiji's father, who'd heard much about her, despite him not being a member of the zodiac. (To her great surprise, she found that she had received a 2$ pay rise per hour in her pay check, which she went to speak to her employer about, though, he just shrugged, and said that for all the work she does, she deserved it. Of course Tohru protested, but was shot down, he said she deserved it, and it wasn't going to change.) She walked out of the building with a big smile on her face, now earning nine dollars an hour, instead of only seven. She was thinking of all the things she could do with her money, like invest, and save, and she could go to college or university...or...become a doctor like Hatori. She had stars in here eyes, her cheeks were flushed from all the running she'd been doing, and her face was very glad.

Yuki saw this, and said "Wow, you sure look happy miss Honda! That makes me happy aswell..." He smiled his lovingly protective smile at her, who just became more flushed.

"I got a pay rise...a really good pay rise. Now I can save-up for a higher education!"

Yuki smiled, "Oh that's right, you work for a Sohma don't you? Yes Momiji's father was always a nice person, he didn't know about the curse either, until Momiji...well, I'm sure Momiji has already told you the story."

"Yes...we had to go talk to his father after that, about the cameras seeing us..." Yuki smiled _'So like Tohru, she'd hug anyone.' _Yuki thought as they were nearing their little garden, which was blooming very nicely, and seeing as how tomorrow was Saturday they would be picking a few things, and planting some more, tomorrow was strawberry picking day. Tohru gazed at the beautiful garden, sparkling in the moonlight. Yuki took her hand, and they smiled at eachother, and continued their walk home, hand in hand. When they neared visible range of the house, they were laughing and joking, rather noisily, though, seeing as how they were isolated by woods, it didn't really matter how loud they were. Kyo, who was perched-up on the roof, looking like he was ready to pounce on them, but neither noticed, as they walked into the house, still holding hands.

Shigure poked his head round the corner to his studio, when he heard the sound of Tohru's laughter. "So good to hear you laughing again Tohru, you hadn't a clue how worried we all were of you. Now, what's for dinner, I'm starving!"

"Oh, I'll get right on that." She said and innocently walked into the kitchen, and busied herself about dinner.

Once it was ready, about half an hour later, it was already 8:30, and Tohru had to go upstairs to study for her test the next day. She fell asleep on the last page of her notes, dreaming about roaming through the world with historic figures, fighting, and watching the tragic explosions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. . .

Shigure found Tohru sleeping on her desk in the morning, when he noticed that it was almost time to be getting-up, and she was usually up before him. He smiled, and walked over to her. "Tohru, Tohru. It's time to get-up now, or you're going to be late for your test..."

She sat bolt-upright at the sound of this. "My test? Oh, I never set my alarm last night...Shigure! Oh dear, I fell asleep!" She scurried around her room gathering her school things, and stuffing them into her bag. She then got out a school uniform, and laid it out on her bed. Tohru directed her attention at Shigure, "Thank-you so much for waking me up in time...what do you want for breakfast?" She asked as they walked downstairs together,

"Oh I don't know, you pick something."

"Oh, well... what about pancakes?"

"That sounds good"

The rest of the morning consisted of a fistfight between Yuki and Kyo over the last pancake, but while they were duking it out, Shigure ate it. On the way to school Tohru dropped all of her books, and they arrived just on time for classes. At lunchtime, Tohru decided that she would go to the study hall, to ask the teachers a few questions before her test. Yuki found everyone else up on the roof, in their usual hang-out spot. Saki and Arisa were talking intently with the others. They saw Yuki arrive, and ushered him into the group.

"Okay guys, listen. It's Tohru's birthday on the 19th, that's next week, so what are we going to do for her 16th birthday? We have to take her somewhere really special...like on a camping trip or something. I don't know, what do you think she'd like?" Arisa asked.

Momiji was smiling, but Kyo, Haru and Yuki weren't. "Why didn't she tell us it was her birthday next week?"

"Why doesn't she tell us anything about her?"

"It's almost like she doesn't want us to know anything...like she thinks we don't care..." they said in succession to one another.

"Tohru never told us anything either. We had to find out from her mother. Tohru is too obsessed with other people, that she forgets to tell anyone anything about herself." Saki explained.

"I think a big trip like that, after the one Momiji gave her for white day, and the one Shigure took us on in golden week would overwhelm her. Perhaps a surprise party would be the best. Then she wouldn't feel uncomfortable." Yuki suggested.

Arisa smiled, "Yes, I like that idea, a surprise sweet sixteen."

Saki's demeanour turned depressed "Oh Arisa, our little Tohru is growing-up so fast! Just think, one day she's going to be a new bride, and we'll lose her forever..." Saki started crying into Arisa's shirt.

"I think you're getting a bit ahead of our time there Saki. That won't happen for another three years.." at this, Arisa started bawling her eyes out aswell while the guys were staring strangely at eachother.

"That's right! Because I'm going to be the one Tohru marries!" Momiji declared, to whom both Yuki and Kyo shot challenging glares.

Saki and Arisa lifted their heads to see Yuki and Kyo with their backs to eachother, Momiji beaming, and Haru looking confused. Suddenly,

Tohru came up the stairs to the roof, and looked around at everyone. "Hey guys, I think I'm ready for my test. I got all the help I needed from the teachers, and they said I'll probably get a good mark! Isn't that great!"

Tohru was given a big hug by Saki, who was still crying. "Oh Tohru, don't ever get married alright? I want you to stay our little Tohru forever."

"Hey, you can't tell her what to do! If she wants to get married she'll get married!" Kyo shouted.

"To meeee!" Momiji declared once more as he leapt for Tohru, but Kyo struck him down. "Waaaaa, Tohru, Kyo hit me!" Momiji cried.

"Honestly, you all act like children! Momiji, Tohru doesn't want to be hugged at school, and Saki, Tohru will marry if she finds the right man for her." Haru said. He glanced at Yuki while saying 'the right man' for Tohru.

Yuki turned away. "I should go gather my things for next class. I'll see you later Tohru." Tohru smiled lovingly after him.

"Oh.. I think Tohru's got the hots for someone!" Momiji shouted, this made Yuki look back to see Tohru's face going red.

"Uhhhhh..." _Oh no! Yuki's looking right at me...can he tell? What if he can? Oh nothings going to be the same between us again._ Tohru thought as her face went redder.

Saki stepped in again, "Oh my precious Tohru!" At that moment the bell rang, as though someone was watching out for her feelings.

"Oh the bell, I've got to get to class!" Tohru said, and ran past Yuki on the stairs, who was dumbstruck. She got into her classroom, and sat in her chair, ready for her test. Her face still beet red, and embarrassed as all hoo. She avoided Yuki for the rest of the day, but she knew that she'd have to face him eventually, today was strawberry picking day afterall...her...alone...with Yuki...


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three**

The walk home was a bit uneasy, Tohru walked in between Yuki and Kyo, nobody said anything...until Yuki broke the silence. "So Tohru, how did you think you did on the test?"

"I think I did well, I knew most of the answers, I guess all that studying payed off afterall!" She smiled in relief, nothing had changed.

When they got home, Kyo went up to his room, and Yuki and Tohru dropped their things and grabbed some baskets to collect strawberries with.

Once they got to the garden, Tohru's face lit-up to see all the beautiful, big, juicy looking strawberries weighing down the bushes. "They're all so big Yuki look! There's so many of them too!"

Yuki smiled, but not because of the strawberries. Suddenly he had an urge to wrap her in his arms and kiss her, "Tohru, it's because of your love, that they grow so big. They want ever so much to please you." He looked into Tohru's eyes as he said this.

"Yuki...I..." she trailed off not knowing what to say. Yuki came closer to her, he'd wanted so much to hug her, for a long time, to hold her.

He looked deep into her eyes, "I want you to be happy aswell..." He held her chin in his hand and brought her face closer to his. "Because I love you Tohru." He made sure that he didn't get so close as to hug her, however much he wished he could.

Finally their lips met, with no protest. They both felt so deeply in love, that, not even Akito could do anything to them. In that moment, the world simply vanished. It was only them, and their love which surrounded them. They drew apart slowly.

Tohru opened her eyes, not even remembering that she'd closed them, to see Yuki staring back into hers, smiling. She smiled a cute little smile back at him, though she started to blush like mad. "I love you too Yuki...but...what will he do...Akito..."

"Shhhh, don't think about him for now. We don't have to tell anyone..."

Unknown to Yuki and Tohru, Hatori saw them from the road. He smiled a small smile and reminisced upon his sweet tender love with Kanna, though, watching Yuki and Tohru, he doubted that they'd been that deeply in love with eachother. He'd never seen anything like that in the world before, he felt a deep sorrow for them, for should Akito find-out, they would be in for a world of pain.

He overheard snippets of their conversation, "_I love you too Yuki...but...what will he do...Akito..." "Shhh, don't think about him for now. We don't have to tell anyone..."_ Then again, perhaps it would work out for them, because Tohru wasn't like Kanna, Tohru is much stronger than Kanna was...Tohru wouldn't blame herself, she'd just feel sorry for Akito. It would be Yuki who would be the one who would be hurt, for if Akito found-out about them, surely Tohru would die... Hatori turned and walked away quietly, he for one wasn't going to reveal what he'd seen that day.

Once the strawberries had been picked, Yuki and Tohru were all happy to be going back. They'd picked one basket of strawberries, which Yuki was carrying, they didn't want to pick them all in one go, and have them go to waste. They were holding hands, Tohru blushing slightly.

Once back, Yuki stayed with Tohru for the rest of the evening. They made strawberry tarts together, and dinner, though Yuki didn't help much, he just wanted to soak in Tohru's prescence for as long as he could.

Everytime Tohru and Yuki's eyes met, she blushed and looked away quickly, smiling like a little child. Shigure suspected that more than just strawberries had occupied their time in the garden, but he was kind enough not to mention it.

When Tohru went to bed, he caught a glimpse of Yuki kissing her, her giggling and blushing, and Yuki closing her door while he sighed with hapiness and went to his own bedroom. Shigure smiled, and went back downstairs. He picked-up the telephone, and called Hatori.

"Hello? Hatori, It's me, Shigure."

"Oh, Shigure...what is it now?"

"Oh, so you saw them too?"

"Yeah, it's not good...but it shouldn't be stopped. I'm just worried for Tohru...and Yuki."

"Yeah, me too. There are two extremities to which this could go...I'm praying for the good one..."

"Me too Shigure...me too..."

Tohru awoke on the 19th, Saturday morning to the bright sun shining in through her open window, a light breeze blowing the sweet scent of the Sakura blossoms throughout her room. She smiled, stretched, and glanced at the clock which read 10:00am.

_Strange_ she thought, she usually awoke much earlier than this on a Saturday. She suddenly became a bit worried, _will they mind that I've slept-in? What about breakfast? They'll all be pretty hungry, but none of them would try to wake me up...oh dear!_

Tohru sat-up, got dressed and slowly, timidly walked downstairs to find the house deserted. She found a not on the table instead, it read:

_Dearest Tohru,_

_We didn't want to wake-you, 'because you looked like the perfect image of innocence and beauty, and it would be a shame to wake such a beautiful young woman from her wild and youthful dreams' but we were getting hungry, so we went out for breakfast. I hope you got all the sleep you needed, because you just looked so tired! Well, when you find this, we'll most likely be eating a meal at a restaurant, while all remembering your delicious meals, and thinking of you, and how lucky you are to be eating your own meal...I'm just kidding Tohru, don't start crying..._(The strange thing was, that she had started crying, feeling that she'd let them all down) _Anyways, Saki called earlier, and she wants to see you over at her house as soon as possible, it sounded kind of urgent, but I would have felt much more guilty about waking you...She said something about an 'emotional emergency' but I might be..._

That was when the letter fell from Tohru's hands, _Saki had an emergency? Oh no! Why didn't he tell me! I have to get over there right now!_

Tohru rushed through the city, it was lucky that she'd gotten dressed before she'd come downstairs and read the letter, because she hadn't even brushed her hair. She got to Saki's and ran through the door.

"Saki? Saki are you here?" She was so worried she could hardly breathe, but as she heard Saki's voice from the livingroom and walked in...

"SURPRISE!" She nearly fell over. She saw Saki's smiling face, "Happy Birthday Tohru! My little Tohru...all grown-up and turning 16.. I think I'm going to cry!" around her stood all her friends, and she was so happy, she started crying.

"Oh you guys! I was so worried..." Yuki and Kyo glared at Shigure.

"What did you write in that letter?" they demanded in unison. Shigure smiled and laughed,

"Oh yo know...that we were going out for breakfast, and that Saki had called, and...that she was having an emotional breakdown...but I didn't want to wake her...so I ... but then I wrote after that I was only joking..."

Tohru laughed and cried at the same time, " I didn't read after.." Though, after her initial releif, and emotional breakdown, the rest of the party was a complete sucess. Tohru got lots of presents off everyone, and the thanks went of for over half an hour, by the end of the party, Tohru was crying again.

"You guys are all so nice to me! I don't know what I did to deserve all this..." They all looked at her, disbelief hanging in the air.

"Miss Honda, I believe it is the other way around, what did we do, to deserve you?" Yuki said, making Tohru blush so much more than she already was.

The party was over, Arisa had to go to work and Shigure and Kyo and Haru and Momiji had to be somewhere.

Tohru, being Tohru, couldn't leave without helping to clean-up afterwards, and Yuki, being the gentleman that he was, couldn't leave two young ladies to clean-up on their own, so he stayed aswell.

Though by the end, he'd caused more mess than there was in the first place, and ended-up sitting on the couch until everything was tidy.

Afterwards, Yuki and Tohru went to the store to pick-up some groceries. On the way back, they stopped for a few moments to check-up on the garden.

They picked a few of the baby weeds that had sprouted up since the last time they'd been there, but there weren't many, and then went back home to put the groceries away, and start dinner.

Shortly after dinner, Hatori came around to check-up on everyone, and to give Tohru a birthday present from him, having been informed of this rather joyous occasion by Shigure the previous evening.

He'd thought and thought about what he could get her, but then he remembered Shigure saying that she was born in the year of the Dog, so he found a beautiful porcelain zodiac dog, with a beautiful gold plaque with all the information about the year of the Dog written on it in black.

When Tohru opened it, she gasped. "Oh Hatori! It's so beautiful! You didn't have to get me this...it looks so expensive...I can't-"

"Oh yes you can, and you will accept it, because it would be dishonourable to refuse a gift for your birthday." Hatori countered, though he was more joking than serious.

They were all sitting around the table praising Tohru. She'd been doted on hand and foot since the time Shigure and Kyo returned,until now, when she was opening Hatori's present.

Hatori had even brought her a cake over, which he'd bought from a very well known Sohma bakery. It was personalized with her name and was pinks and whites and yellows...the colors of spring.

Tohru felt so welcome and loved in the Sohma house, she couldn't ever think of leaving or going away for any amount of time...they were dependant on her and needed her to care for them, and feed them.

That night when she went to bed, and thought of all the birthdays she'd shared with her mother, she felt as happy as she had back then. She got dressed in her favorate pijamas, the ones her mother had always worn.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter four**

The next day at school as Yuki and Tohru were walking into the schoolgrounds, they saw Haru acting rather blackish towards Kyo. "Oh come on you sissy, I bet Kisa has more guts than you! Come on right now, I bet you're scared of me. That's why you won't take me on, afraid you'll get beat?"

"Oh you wish! I'll take you anyday, you me after school! Under the bridge..."

"Anything to get out of it, Scaredy Cat!"

"That's it you're dead!" Kyo shouted as he engadged into combat with Haru.

Yuki and Tohru were speechless. _Fighting at shcool?_ They thought in unison. There wasn't anyone out in the grounds around them, because they were at the back of the school, and classes had already started. Tohru wasn't thinking about school at the moment, she was more worried about what would happen if they were found by the principal or one of the teachers...

"yuki, what are we going to do about them? They can't fight at school! We have to stop them!"

Yuki gave her a small smile, "You're so thoughtful, but, I wouldn't want to get inbetween them two, if I were you, heck, I'm me, and I still don't want to get between Kyo and Haru, especially when Haru is black."

Tohru just sighed, then made-up her mind, she'd yell at them. "Kyo, Haru, you can't fight at shcool! You'll get in trouble!"

Though all she got in return was a glare from Kyo, and Haru blew a kiss to her, "Don't worry doll face, I'm coming for you next." Haru said as he came closer to her, having flung Kyo into a wall **_POUF_** as Kyo turned into a cat.

Yuki stepped protectively in front of Tohru, he knew what was going on, this was Black Haru at his worst. Something very bad must have hapenned... "Don't you dare lay one finger on her Haru."

It seemed that the fight was over, between Kyo and Haru at least... Kyo was lying on the ground, not moving, and Haru was advancing on Tohru, who was protected by Yuki. "Come on Yuki, you know she wants me, hand her over, or I'll have to take her by force..."

Yuki glowered, he looked almost ready to pounce on Haru. "Tohru, get out of here, I think Kyo might be seriously hurt..."

Tohru was too awed to move. All the while she was standing still Haru was advancing ever closer to them, suddenly he struck out at Yuki. Yuki only just dodged his blow, and kneed him in the guts. Haru doubled over in pain, but there was no stopping him now...he got right back up again and renewed his assault on Yuki, even more relentlessly than before, if that was even possible.

"Get out of here Tohru! I don't know how long I can hold him off for!" Yuki shouted as he jumped into a helicopter kick to the side of Haru's head. Haru was knocked to the ground, it should have been enough to knock him unconsious, but he got right back-up again, as a man posessed.

Tohru suddenly came to her senses and turned and ran, yelling over her shoulder "I'm getting Shigure!" Yuki nodded and made sure to get between Tohru and Haru.

"Oh, so you'll get inbetween Tohru and I, but not Kyo and I...I can see what's going on here Yuki, you're in love with her aren't you? You ARE! Well well well, aren't we treading in shady waters. I can't wait to pound your face in!"

"You're despicable Haru. Tohru did nothing to deserve the way you're treating her. Come to your senses, you aren't like this!" Yuki's anger grew to titanic proportions. He attacked Haru out of anger this time, but, seeing as his already perfect form couldn't get any better, all his anger accomplished was to add ot the ferocity of his punches.

This only caused Haru's anger to become worse, and no matter how hard Yuki tried, Haru just got more and more powerful, while he got more and more tired. Just as Yuki was reaching his final thread of consiousness, Tohru came back with Shigure and the Master.

The master took over fighting with Haru, and had him down within seconds. Tohru quickly ran over to Yuki's side, while Shigure tended to Kyo.

"Yuki, wake-up Yuki, please!" she cried, tears brimming in her eyes.

Yuki opened his eyes, "Don't worry Tohru, I'll be fine...just, don't let anyone see me, cause I think I'm going to-" **_POUF_** Yuki had transformed into a rat.

Tohru scooped him up quickly, looking around to make sure that there wasn't anyone around. The good thing about this situation was that Kyo, knowing also what was wrong with Haru, and brought him to a completely isolated part of the school, where nobody could see them from the school's windows. There was nobody around, so Tohru gathered Yuki's clothes and stuffed them in her bag. Shigure had Kyo, and Haru was back to himself, having been pounded on the top of his head, which was the only way to get him back. He was now knocked out, but not a cow, which would seem terribly strange. The master threw him over his shoulder, and Tohru hugged her dear Yuki to her chest protectively, and they all started back to the house.

"Well Tohru, you've had quite a morning I hear." Hatori said as he checked her over for cuts or bruises. "You've got a sprained ankle, and you'll have to stay off it for a while. Two weeks would suffice." While she'd been running back home to get Shigure, she'd fallen over an unearthed tree root. Nothing heroic or anything, just clumsy.

Hatori wrapped it in bandage and smiled at her, "You'll be fine in about a week or two, just don't stand-up for too long, you've already done enough damage to it by continuing to run after tearing the ligament, then walking back all the way, as though nothing were wrong. When you're hurting anywhere, you need to tell people, because that wouldn't have healed on its own. Though, you were very right in doing what you did, I just hope Haru doesn't have any brain damage...that was a pretty big bump oh his head."

A tear fell from Tohru's eye, "I'm sorry Hatori. I- is Yuki going to be alright?"

Hatori smiled knowingly, " Yes, Yuki just got a bit tired, and that's why he fainted, and transformed, Hatsuharu didn't actually get to him. Yuki did more harm to him than Haru had to Kyo." He brought his hand up to her face and wiped the tear off of her face.

"Uwh..." Tohru stood-up and went upstairs to Yuki's bedroom. He'd retransformed into his human form, and was awake. Tohru sat next to him on the edge of his bed. "I was so worried about you Yuki, I thought that Haru was going to kill you!" She held his hand in between hers and kissed it.

"I'm sorry for worrying you Tohru, I'll try not to let it happen again. You did the right thing by going to get Shigure, he knows what to do when Haru gets like this, though, this time was much worse than any other time he goes black, this was like super black Haru. I don't know what happened to make him get so angry. I'm sorry you had to see him like that, he's not really like that, everyone had a dark side, his is just more evident than other's."

Tohru smiled, at least he was back to normal now, if there was a normal in Tohru's life anymore.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Hello everyone! I'm reposting this chapter because recently it has been pointed out ot me that I made a little mistake in this chapter, saying that Tohru and Ayame hugged. Woops, sorry, and thank-you to dAnnYsGiRl777 for pointing it out to me!

**Chapter five**

The rest of the week, Tohru had been told to stay at the house, so that her ankle could heal properly. Yuki brought her homework home, and Kyo did all the cooking, so that she wouldn't have to get-up, though she really did want to get up. She was sick of having to sit around the house all day doing nothing but her homework and watching TV. She'd found herself being sucked into all the soap operas.

One day when Yuki was walking in the door, he found Tohru and Ayame curled up on the couch together bawling their eyes out watching the TV "What are you crying for?" He asked after getting over his bout of anger about his brother coming over.

"He's breaking-up with her, because he thinks she was having an affair, but she wasn't!" Tohru managed through sobs, "It's so sad! I hope that never happens to me...Oh no what's she doing?" Tohru asked as she saw the girl on the TV take a gun out of the drawer, she brought it to her head and pulled the trigger. Tohru and Ayame screamed and clasped hands.

"The poor girl! It's almost like one of Shigure's novels, I cried so hard as I was reading it... why did the writer of this show have to be so cruel? Why?" Ayame demanded shaking his fist at the screen.

The pair screamed again as after a close-up on the husband's face seeing her lying there dead, the end credits rolled-up on the screen. "_They can't end it like that! What's he going to do?"_ Tohru demanded. Yuki, getting over his moment, walked out of the room, and went outside, where he burst out laughing.

Later that evening, Hatori came by to check-up on Tohru. He diagnosed that her ankle was fully healed, and that she was fit to attend school the next day.

Tohru protested, "But...what's going to happen to them? I'm going to miss it! Oh dear." She suddenly realized that she'd announced her worries out loud and quickly covered her mouth, "I mean, that's great Hatori! I've missed so much school, and I really shouldn't be out of school for so long at each time. I'm glad also, because it was really boring sitting around all day... Not that I'm complaining, just that, I wish I hadn't sprained my ankle in the first place." She said this while getting more and more red in the face. "So I can walk around now?" She asked timidly.

Yuki smiled at her, _she's so adorable! I couldn't imagine my life without her..._ he thought.

"Yes Tohru, I just said that..." Hatori said, he frowned at having to repeat himself.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll just...go...now..." and with that Tohru left the room. She wanted to go to the garden, so when Yuki came outside with her to see if she was alright, she said, "Yuki, do you want to go pick some strawberries with me? I was thinking about making a strawberry tart for desert...but you don't have to if you'd rather stay here." She said.

Yuki smiled sweetly, "I'd love to come with you." He went back inside to grab a basket in which to collect strawberries. Tohru smiled at him, and took his hand tenderly. They walked in silence to the garden, and once there, they knelt to pick the berries. Neither wanted to say anything, there was nothing to say.

They went for the same strawberry, and their hands touched. It felt as though electricity were flowing through them, but as Tohru pulled her hand away, Yuki grabbed it and pulled her closer to him.

Their lips met. When they parted, they let the silence ring for a few moments. Yuki was the first to speak, "I'm sorry about Hatsuharu, and that you had sprained your ankle. Just don't be afraid of him, I won't let him touch you." Yuki announced as he stared into Tohru's eyes.

"It's alright Yuki, I don't think he was actually going to...you know...anyways...what do you want to do tomorrow?" She wanted to change the subject.

"Well, I was thinking that after school, we could go to the pool, and you could try out that new bathing suit you got, I know you've been dying to try it. You look very adorable in it." Yuki said as he was playing with her hair.

Tohru was blushing again, "Okay..." in a childish voice she said, "But, I don't think it's decent for school, because it's a bikini..." Just then, a rather cool breeze blew in the already cold autumn night. Yuki heard a loud **_POUF_** from the direction of the path. It was Ayame.

He came slithering closer to them. "Ouuuuu, Yuki and Tohru! Together at last! Oh I've waited so long for a beautiful young lady to come along and steal his heart awa-"

At this Yuki grabbed Ayame's snake head, and flung him as far as he could away from them. Yuki then became quite distressed, "Oh no, he knows! Now what are we going to do? He's the biggest blabbermouth there ever was! If we're lucky, Akito won't know yet...if we're lucky, Though, by morning...we'll be treading in very hot water!"

Tohru sat leaned back on her hands with her legs stretched out in front of her. "Why don't we give him the benefit of the doubt...I know he's a bit...excitable, but he's definitely not stupid. If he really cares about you, he'll keep it to himself. Just trust him, you never know, this could be a good thing..."

"A Good thing? How can anything good come of his knowing about this?" Yuki shot a bit sharply at Tohru.

"I'm sorry...I guess you know him better than me..." Tohru replied, taken aback by Yuki's sharp tone, he never spoke to her like that before..._Is he angry with me? Oh I hope I've not done anything to make him angry...if he is angry...I think that I'm going to cry..._ thought Tohru.

"No, I'm sorry I spoke to you like that, It's just that Ayame was never a very good brother to me. I mean sure we were kept separate the majority of the time, but once I reached out to him, and he shoved me off, like I was nothing more than a toy that he could pick-up whenever he felt like. From that moment, I've never really considered him my sibling, he's just another Sohma, and another member of the zodiac, someone sharing the same curse as I and that is where the similarities end. I don't know why all of a sudden he feels the need to get to know me, I don't like it, it feels like pity." Yuki said quietly.

Tohru smiled and played with her hair. _They're more alike than they think they are...though I'm not sure that I can see Yuki acting like Ayame...that would be creepy._ Tohru thought, in her mind she saw Yuki dressed in a long red Kimono with bows and frills all over it. She then pictured a sickeningly sweet smile on Yuki's face, and him doing a curtsey. She was snapped out of her fantasies by Yuki's face in front of hers

"Tohru? What's with the disgusted look on your face? Do I have something stuck in my teeth?" He asked as he covered his mouth.

''Oh No no! Not at all! I was just thinking about something...nothing you'd be interested in...tee hee" Tohru exclaimed fanning her hand at Yuki.

He shrugged and sat down next to her. "I just don't want to have anything to do with him, he's too different from me..." Yuki sighed. He placed his hands over his head and slouched his shoulders.

"Well, I don't think he's going to tell on us...you can have that much faith in him, and we could always tell Hatori..."

"No, no, we'll just trust my brother, Hatori would...no. Okay? Just no." He said definitively. "We can't trust anyone, and I'm taking a great risk trusting my brother... if anyone else finds out...I don't even want to think about it right now...nobody else will find out."

Shigure, Hatori and Ayame were sitting together in the living room later that evening, after Yuki and Tohru had gone to bed. Kyo was perched up on top of the roof, but they didn't know that. They thought he was safe in his bed, sleeping like a baby, but he could hear everything that was going on, and was being said between the three of them.

Now, the whole of Tohru and Yuki's shared house was in on their secret...and it would be much more imperative that nobody else finds out.

"I think it's about time that one of them got together with her, she makes them both so happy. I thought it was going to be Kyo after that little fiasco with his true form, but I guess I was wrong..." Shigure said rather loudly.

"Shh Gure, We don't want them to know that we know..." Ayame whispered.

"You're one to talk, you let them see you!" Shigure shot back childishly.

"But it's nothing like our love Gure, Come here you dog."

"Oh yes Aya, I want your snake in me..." Shigure cooed back. Hatori rolled his eyes. "Quit it you two, you haven't changed a bit since highschool!" He said. The rest of the conversation went on as such.

There was a crash on the roof as Kyo fell over, he'd been standing with his mouth open, gaping at what he was hearing, and the crashing sound was him breaking through Yuki's roof and tackling him in his sleep.

Shigure slapped his head. "Oh great! Kyo heard us, and now he knows...and my precious roof!" Shigure, Hatori and Ayami ran upstairs to see Yuki, half-asleep, being held by the collar by Kyo who was punching his face repeatedly.

Tohru heard the ruckus and ran in, "_No Kyo! Stop it!_" she screamed and attempted to pull him off of Yuki, but hugged him and he turned into a cat.

"How could you! You're with him? But I thought...Tohru...OH NEVER MIND!" Kyo shouted before running off.

Tohru, too worried about Yuki, didn't run after him, she instead ran to Yuki. To her surprise, there was no bloody nose, or anything that would indicate that a fight had just occurred. "Yuki are you alright?"

Yuki rubbed his eyes, and opened them, "Huh? Tohru, what is it? Are you alright?" He asked sitting-up with his eyes wide open. "You aren't hurt are you? What happened to my room?" He demanded while looking around at the broken boards and his roof open revealing the full moon.

Tohru shrugged, "Well, you see, Kyo came in shouting about something...and broke through your roof, and then he started shaking you and punching your face, and...I thought you were going to be seriously hurt, so I turned him into a cat, and then he said something like 'How could you! You're with him? But I thought...' and then he shouted 'OH NEVER MIND' and ran off. And that's my story." Tohru explained emotionlessly, which was quite rare for her, but seeing as how it was almost 2:00am, and she'd just been awoken from her sleep, it's explainable.

Yuki nodded his head, "Ahhh, I see now...well, see you in the morning Tohru!" He said and leaned over and kissed her, and fell back to sleep.

Tohru, taken by surprise, nodded "Uh huh" and walked back to her room dazzled, and fell silently into bed, also falling asleep immediately.

Hatori, Ayame, and Shigure watched in awe as they were standing amidst the action, going completely unnoticed. "Well, that was weird, I think I'm going to go to bed now...I'll get Kyo to clean it up in the morning, It was him that made this mess afterall!" Shigure announced as he left the room and yawned.

Hatori sighed, and Ayame was in awe, "My brother doesn't have a scratch! All those punches, and not a single scratch! That's amazing!" He announced and flew down the stairs after Hatori.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter six**

In the morning, a loud "WHAT!" Was heard from Yuki's bedroom.

Tohru of course woke-up at this and looked all around herself. "What? What? What's going on? Oh Yuki's room..." She scurried out of her bed and over to Yuki's room, she was still in her pyjamas, they were not very decent for a morning house full of men. "Yuki? Are you alright?" She asked.

Yuki took one look at her, and went red in the face, her nightgown was rather see-thru. "Uhh, Miss Honda...you're...cold."

She frowned, _how does he know that I'm cold? I guess he must see my goosebumps...but can he see them from this far away? Oh...uhh crap_ Tohru thought. She then went a very deep shade of red, and covered herself with Yuki's house robe.

Yuki laughed nervously, and returned his attention to his bedroom. "What happened last night?" He asked, picking through his things to find his school bag.

"Well, Kyo came in and started beating you up, and then I made him transform, and he asked me 'How could you? You're with him? But I thought...' and then he ran away screaming, 'OH NEVER MIND' and I haven't seen him since." Tohru recited yet again.

"Oh, so now Kyo knows about us...that's not very good, I bet Shigure knows too, and then, Hatori will know, and I'll bet you that they're all sitting downstairs together..." He clenched his fist, and suddenly released it. "Hey, I have an Idea...Today is saturday right?"

"Uh huh"

"Come on." He said as he grabbed Tohru by the wrist and pulled her up onto the roof. They climbed down together and escaped into the forest together. The whole time Yuki was holding Tohru's wrist pulling her along after him.

After a few minutes of running, not too fast, so that Tohru could keep-up, Yuki slowed to a walk and loosened his grip on her wrist so that her hand fell into his and they were holding hands.

"Where are we going Yuki? I've never been down here before...are we still on your property?" Tohru asked as she struggled to keep the robe on her and keep up with Yuki.

"Oh yeah, we're still in Sohma territory, we aren't going to leave it, so they can't say we ran away together, I just don't want to be around anyone for a while. It'll be fun! We can pretend we're forbidden lovers, I'm sure your parents must have been like this, your mother being in her gang and all." Yuki said with a twinkle in his eye.

Tohru, completely unaware that Yuki was being quite strange towards her today, "Oh yeah, I guess so...but...what's going to happen to the others? I still have to cook and do chores! Oh Yuki, I'm not even dressed yet!" Tohru exclaimed.

"Oh that doesn't matter. It's not like we'll be needing clothes anyways."

At this Tohru stopped walking, "Yuki...I-I...what are you saying?" She was very confused. _What's going on? Yuki's always such a gentleman...but then again, Haru has his black days...maybe they all do! Kyo has his transforming thing...and...oh no...maybe I should be walking the other way, what am I going to do! _

Yuki was advancing on her with a malicious grin on his face. "Come on Tohru. Don't be scared, I won't hurt you..."

Tohru backed-up to the point where she was against a tree and Yuki was still coming towards her. He reached her and pressed his mouth against hers. When he drew back he laughed.

"You're not Yuki! Yuki would never do that to me! Get away from me you imposter!" Tohru shouted. She kicked him in the groin and as tears fell from her eyes she started running away.

Yuki toppled over in pain. "You stupid little girl! How dare you do that to me!" Yuki screamed at her.

Tohru suddenly turned around. "Akito?" She said shocked.

"How clever, the girl has brains afterall!" Akito shot another malicious grin at her as the shroud around him disappeared to reveal Akito standing before her in his long red robes. "And here I thought you loved Yuki." He mocked her while laughing.

"I do love Yuki, but you're not Yuki! Yuki would never ask me to do anything I didn't want to do! You call yourself the head of the family, but you're just scared! You're just a scared little boy! And I refuse to have anything to do with you!" Tohru screamed in disgust and ran away from him.

"Get back here you whench! I'm not done with you yet!" Akito called after her, and caught-up with her rather quickly and pinned her to the ground "Heh, you're mine now!" He licked his lips and lowered his face to hers.

Before he could kiss her, she let out a blood-curdling scream of terror that echoed through the valley. "Heh, we're too far in the forest my love, there's nobody around to hear you scream. Now stop squirming, and accept your fate. You're mine now!" Akito tore her nightgown right down the front, so that her chest was revealed. She screamed again and attempted to kick him, but she was pinned down too tight.

Tears of terror and pain streamed down her face. "Get off! Leave me alone! Yuki! Help! Kyo! Shigure! _Help me_!" Tohru screamed, but she had been under too much pressure as her left arm broke under her back, and she fainted.

Akito laughed all the more, but his laugh was inturrupted with angry cries of "LET HER GO AKITO!" and "GET OFF HER YOU SICK BASTARD!" It was Yuki.

He knocked Akito so hard that the wind was knocked out to him. Kyo came up behind Yuki to make sure that Tohru was alright. He went red when he noticed Tohru's bare chest, and turned away to find something to cover her up with, but everything had been torn to shreads.

Yuki, red in the face, and angrier than he'd ever been before, came very close to killing Akito, but he couldn't kill him, it wasn't allowed, so he left him there bleeding. He then turned to Tohru, and picked her up, doing his best not to hug her close to himself, and carried her all the way back to the house, while Kyo followed.

They barged in the door to see Hatori, Ayame and Shigure all sitting around the small table drinking a hot cup of coffee. Shigure rose to his feet immediately. "Yuki! Tohru! Is she alright?"

Hatori, who'd had his back to the door, wipped around, a worried look on his face, and fear in his eyes. "Oh my lord! Get her to her bed right now! Tell me exactly what hapened."

" She was being raped!" Yuki spat through gritted teeth.

Hatori dropped his drink on the table. The cup broke and all the cofee spilled out all over the table. "Who did this to her?"

Tohru had cuts and bruises all over her, and very prominent ones around her mouth, and in between her legs where Akito had attempted to force his knee. She had hand-shaped ones on her right arm, and her left breast, and her left arm had been broken in the struggle.

Yuki, still red in the face, walked upstairs with her and laid her gently on her bed. "It was Akito." Kyo told them, "Akito did this to her. But, I think he's in worse shape than Tohru, we sort of left him in a bloody mess in the woods. The bastard!"

"Is he...dead?" Shigure asked quietly.

"No, but it took all of Yuki's self restraint _not_ to kill him. You should have seen his eyes, I was surprised thaey didn't pop right out of his head!"

Ayame stood-up, "Well, one of us has to go and get Akito, so it may as well be me. I'll bring him back to the main house. It's a pity that we can't just let him die, but a curse is a curse, and we need him alive for the time being...unfortunately." Ayame spoke quietly as he placed his drink back on the table, and walked out to find Akito.

Hatori and Shigure raced upstairs, to see Tohru still unconsious on her bed, and Yuki, a rat sitting next to her.

The reason that Hatori had come over, was so that he could check-up on Yuki, so he had all of his medical supplies with him. Hatori immediately began to clean-up Tohru's bleeding, he wasn't as bothered by seeing her naked as Kyo was, and Yuki was more worried than embarassed.

Shigure was looking worriedly over Hatori's shoulder, but his face was going red also, and every now and then a small smile creapt up on his face.

Yuki was so disgusted by this, that when he retransformed, he shooed Shigure and Kyo out of the room, and locked the door. He returned to Tohru's side after putting on his clothes.

Hatori's diagnostics were that she had a minor concussion, and when she awoke, she probably wouldn't remember what had happened, if they were lucky, and then they could tell her that she'd fallen.

She had a broken arm, and that would take two months to heal, and unlike her sprained ankle, was very bad.

"So, when she's better, I suggest she start taking lessons from Kazuma in self defence. Because it would be terrible if this were to happen again." He said seriously.

Yuki nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, I'm so angry at Akito! He'd better hope I don't see him again or I _will_ kill him!" Yuki stated through gritted teeth.

"You know Yuki, if you don't relax, your teeth are going to be crushed...then what will Tohru think when she's kissing you?" Hatori said with a smile.

Yuki's face went red, but he relaxed his jaw. "Not you too? How many people did my brother tell? I'm gonna kill him!"

"You're beginning to sound an awful lot like a certain jealous cat Yuki, how unlike you." Hatori said again, his smile growing bigger. "Besides, Ayame didn't tell anyone, other than us, but we already knew before him. He got all annoyed when he found out that we knew and hadn't told him, and he's been at the house ever since I found him in the woods, presumably after you'd thrown him. Now, help me with Tohru's bandage, I have to set her arm, and then you will have to wrap it. That will hold it until we can get her to my hospital. Alright, we'll make a stretcher, and get her into the back of my van, and you can come with me to the hospital, because I'm sure you wouldn't want to leave your girlfriend's side." Hatori said. He began work on the stretcher, using pieces of wood from Yuki's broken-up room and tying them together. He then tied a thick blanket to the wood, so that when Tohru was put on the stretcher, she wouldn't fall through it.

They then transported her to the back of Hatori's car, and brought her to the hospital, where Hatori immediately took her to the emergency ward.

They put a cast on her, and gave her antibiotics to fight any diseases that she might have got, and also to accellerate her white blood cells to work faster.

Yuki became much less worried when they'd patched her all up, and were just waiting for her to wake-up.

Just after lunch, which a nurse had brought in for them, Tohru started to wake-up. Yuki was by her side the instant she showed signs of movement. "Tohru? Are you alright Tohru?" He asked her when he saw her eyes open.

"What...Where am I?" She asked weakly.

"You're at the hospital. Do you remember what happened?" Hatori asked as he came over to her side along with Yuki.

"No...I was walking in the woods with Yuki, and then...that's all I remember." Hatori looked at Yuki.

Yuki frowned. _I wasn't with her, I was beating-up Kyo when I heard her scream and ran after her...did Akito disguise himself as me to get her to go with him? He was trying to hurt her! He must know about us then!_ Yuki thought, understanding dawned in his eyes, which Hatori saw.

"So you don't remember falling down the cliff?"

"I fell down a cliff? I just remember being scared...so I guess that would explain it..." Tohru said slowly, _I fell down a cliff? I don't know...but if they say I did...then I guess that's what happened. _"Was Akito there too? I seem to remember him being there...Oh it's all so hazy." Tohru said.

She sat-up but Hatori told her to lay back down. "You're not ready to be getting up just yet. I think you'll be here for about two weeks, so we can monitor your progress." Hatori said, but he had other reasons for wanting to keep her there.

Once she'd fallen back to sleep, he took Yuki out of the room. "The reason that I want her to stay here for two weeks, is that if she remembers what happened to her, I'm going to make her forget, and if she doesn't remember in two weeks, then she's not going to remember. But I can only make her forget 6 months...that will mean that hers and your love will be forgotten, but she will still remember you...do you understand?" Hatori said.

"Yes, it will go back to what it was like 6 months ago, when she saw Kyo in his true form, but things might not be that way...she might not remember." Yuki said hopefully.

Hatori nodded, "Lets hope that is the case, but that stuff she said about walking in the forest with you..."

Yuki shook his head. "It wasn't me, I was beating Kyo into the ground after what he did to my bedroom! I don't know what happened between her and Akito, only that while I was punching Kyo, I heard a scream, and so did Kyo, and we both started running. Then I saw her up ahead in the middle of the path, with her dress all ripped open, and Akito...the BASTARD!" Yuki ended-up shouting vulgaities in the children's ward.

"Alright Yuki...there are children listening, enough with the potty mouth. Well, how could Akito make himself look like you? That's what confuses me to hell." Hatori said with his hand on his chin.

Yuki looked serious and finally shrugged, "I don't know, but I for one don't like it!"

"Me neither, It sounds an awful lot like a certain prophecy... and that's one thing we don't want to mix in with the Zodiac, it could change the world as we know it...what are we going to do rat?" Hatori asked into the open.

"Why are you asking me?"

"I don't know..."

Ayame brought Akito back to the main house where he was taken to his room and cleaned-up and revived. After that, Ayame went into his room to speak with him. "Akito? Was that another test? Because if it was, it was a pretty cruel test, I mean, Tohru's going to have scars." Ayame asked.

"Heh, yes, it was a test, and she passed it quite well really. She's smarter than she looks. Don't worry, she won't remember a thing, I made sure that I burried it in her subconsiousness. Even if she didn't have the physical strength to harm me...much, she still figured out that I wasn't Yuki, and...therefore she passed my test. The fact that Yuki heard her scream was quite shocking, but then again, they are in love. Ugh, It's disgusting. But there's nothing I can do about them now is there?" Akito said quietly. He smirked to himself.

Ayame was glad that he wasn't looking at him, because at that moment his face contorted into a snake like snarl and he clenched his fist. _She won't remember it, but Yuki will. Yuki is going to be hurting allot. You Bastard I hate your guts! I wish I could kill you right now! But, instead I'm going to go see Yuki, I'm going to be a brother to him, now, more than ever. I'm going to be there for him. I'll ruin your little game Akito, and I'll watch laughing as you die of your own accord, I'll not raise a finger to help you. Because Akito, I hate you. There's nothing more loathsome in my life than you. I could live with my curse, and pass it onto all my children, and I still would loathe you more... I hope you die quickly. _Ayame thought wickedly, and turned his back on Akito, and walked out of the room, his long hair swirling in a breeze passing through the courtyard.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter seven**

The next two weeks were a step backwards in progress for the Shigure Sohma household, as they starved frequently forgetting that Tohru was in the hospital, and it was a struggle to keep the kitchen decent looking. Kyo was forced to do much of the cooking, and Yuki had to figure out how to do the laundry.

Finally when the two weeks were up, Tohru still had another four weeks in her cast, and wouldn't be able to move much, so Shigure, regretting the state of the house, moved them all to the Sohma summer home until Tohru got better.

There would be a Sohma housekeeper there, and their meals were cooked and all they had to do was relax and get better.

The day that Tohru came home from the hospital, everyone was packing their things, because it was the first day of summer, and they were moving out of the smelly home and into the summer home. Tohru was overwhealmed. "Wow, where are we going?" She asked politely, because nobody had informed her of the move.

"Well, with Yuki's roof demolished, and the rest of the house falling down, we've decided to rebuild the house. So while the renovations, or rather, complete destruction of the house, and rebuildidng of it, we're going to live at the Sohma summer home, I've rented it out for us for the whole summer, so our first day back, will be your first day back at school. Doesn't that sound fun Tohru? I'm going to make your room so much bigger, and get you a whole bedroom set!" Shigure smiled a great big smile, while Tohru was silent.

"Oh no no! I couldn't accep-"

"Well, too bad because I've already bought it! It has a 'No return policy' so you'd better accept it, because I don't want a girly bedroom set in my room."

"Well, I guess if you've already bought it..." Tohru accepted humbly.

Shigure smiled, "That's better, besides, I wasn't going to take it back anyways, even if I could! It's my, how shall you say, 'Get better Tohru' present. Mine's much better than Yuki's kiss, and Kyo's flowers, and Yuki's chocolates and Kyo's nervous foot shuffling, and Hatori's...Hatori's... hmm, I don't think Hatori got you anything!" Shigure paused with his hand on his chin, looking as though he were deep in thought.

"Oh nono! It was my own fault that I fell! And my birthday was three months ago! I shouldn't get presents for being clumsy!" Tohru said shyly, her face turning beet red.

Shigure suddenly looked serious, "Yes, but it was Yuki who was with you, and he should have sacrificed himself to save you! What kind of a boyfriend lets his girlfriend fall down a steep decline? Shame on you Yuki!" Shigure said trying to keep up the false idea of her falling down a small cliff.

Yuki glared at Shigure, and wouldn't meet Tohru's eyes. "It's okay Yuki! I wouldn't have been able to catch you! I'm sorry... I'll be more carefull next time..." Tohru said deepressed.

Yuki came closer to her, "There's nothing to be sorry about Tohru, It was my fault for letting you fall, and next time, I'll catch you! Just let's hope that there isn't a next time, alright?"

"Okay. I'm still sorry I fell though."

"It's alright, we forgive you Tohru!" Shigure announced in a singsong. "Now lets all get into the car, Tohru gets the front, and Hatori is going to drive, and everyone pack their things into the trunk, or the wagon, whichever you prefer. Tohru don't fret, we gathered all of your things first, and they're all in the wagon, you don't have very many clothes, we'll have to buy you more when we get back, Kyo, remind me when we get back to go shopping with Tohru for some new clothes."

"Oh no Shigure, too much! Going to pass out, too many presents! Can't handle it all."

"Okay Tohru, take a deep breath! Go sit in the van and we'll talk about all this when we reach the summer home in china. Everyone ready for a long car ride? It'll be thirteen whole hours of me!"

Yuki and Kyo groaned, and realized that they were doing the same thing and wouldn't talk to eachother.

Tohru sleapt for the first three hours of the car ride, she still got pretty tired, well, after trying to heal for over two weeks, it would take up alot of energy, so, the rest of them kept pretty quiet.

When Tohru woke-up, they were at their first washroom break, and since there were no girls on the trip to help Tohru, she had to do it alone, it took some time.

When they all got back to the van, Tohru insisted that she sit in the back with Yuki and Kyo, "I can sit in the back, then Shigure won't be bothering Yuki and Kyo...It's only an arm, and it's not like I need to keep it up or anything." Tohru argued, but in the end, she was to sit in the front for the rest of the ride, and on the way back, she could sit in the back.

There were arguments over what radio station to listen to, and finally Kyo and Yuki agreed on 'The Rock 59.7' and so Tohru put it on that one.

They neared their second rest stop, and it was about lunchtime. Tohru looked around at all the different restaurants that they could go to, but Kyo pushed her towards the one he liked.

Yuki followed behind them, and Hatori frowned. They all went in and ordered take-out food from Macdonalds.

They all loaded back into the van, Tohru in the front and drove back onto the freeway, they were now going to cross the ocean, from Japan to China. The Summer home wasn't very far from the entrance to China, it was right on the coast.

Yuki and Kyo fell silent, and Hatori turned down the radio, Tohru fell asleep and so did Shigure. He drooled all over Kyo, but Kyo was also asleep so he didn't notice.

Eventually Yuki fell asleep also, and by the time they awoke, there was only thirty minutes left in their trip.

Tohru slept right until they were pulling into the driveway, and they went over a big bump that would have woken-up everyone, but there was only Tohru who was still sleeping. She woke-up with a start, " What? What? I'm sorry, did I forget to wake-up? What do you want me to make for breakfast?" She asked sleepily.

"I want some of those delicious pancakes you made three weeks ago!" Shigure said hapily. "No, Tohru we've just arrived at the summer home, you won't need to be cooking anything for the whole summer."

"Oh, we're here already? But it hasn't been that long..." She said still sleepy.

"What! Not long! There's no way in hell that Shigure is sitting with me on the way back!"

"Come now Kyo it wasn't that bad!"

"Not that bad? I have drool all over my shirt! I've had to sit in it for over seven hours! And you say that's not so bad?" Kyo exclaimed with a burst of anger. Though, he cooled down enough to say, "Let me out of the car now!" without hurting anyone.

Shigure just laughed and shoved him out of the car. Kyo growled and swung at Shigure once he was out of the car, but Yuki caught his arm before it hit Shigure, "Not at the Summer home, we need to let Tohru heal-up." He said quietly so that Tohru couldn't hear.

Kyo sighed, "Yeah, you're right. But the minute we get home! I'm gonna beat you at last you damn rat!" He shouted and went to get his things from the back of the van.

"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that Kyo!" Shigure shouted, he really liked to get Kyo all riled-up like that.

Kyo shouted something incoherant but sounded like "Shutup!" and ran into the home with all of his bags.

"Darn, He gets first pick of the rooms! He'll most likely pick the biggest room, but I'm going to have to kick him out, because the biggest is Tohru's room."

"No no really, he can have the biggest room, with a bigger room there's just more space to spread the mess..." Tohru countered, but Shigure shot her down once again with,

"Tohru, you are by far the neatest person around here, you couldn't make a mess, even if you wanted to! You have, what I like to call, a 'Neat and Tidy addiction' and don't deny it, because I've seen you get up at three in the morning and start cleaning."

"But that's only when I can't sleep!"

"Sure, just do us all a favour, and make a big mess for once in your life, here, the maids will clean it up, and you can get better sooner if you aren't all worried about messing-up people's houses." Shigure said as he grabbed his and Tohru's things from the back of the trailer.

Tohru tried to help carry something with her good arm, but Shigure just nuged her along ahead.

Hatori helped Yuki with the last of his things. "Alright, so I'll be back to pick you all up at the end of the summer, don't try to do anything that would impede your return to perfect health Tohru. Just try to get lots of rest, and I'll be just a phone-call away if you need anything, well, more like a phone call and then 10 hours." Hatori smiled, and turned around.

"Bye Hatori! Have a great summer! Say hello to everyone back at the Sohma house for me!" She waved goodbye with her good arm, her left one still in it's sling.

Hatori exchanged a look with Shigure, she really didn't remember anything that had happened between her and Akito, perhaps he had his qwn reasons for keeping her in the dark. Was it to punish Yuki? "I don't like this at all." Hatori said once Yuki had brought Tohru inside.

"Well, all will soon be revealed, and I just hope it's not what I'm thinking..." Hatori said.

"Yeah, well, I trust you'll keep things at bay while you're at the house." Shigure said back to him as he locked down the van and wagon.

"Yeah, Bye Shigure, and don't do anything stupid...we don't want Tohru getting hurt."

Shigure made a face of mock surprise, "Why would I, of all people, do anything to hurt our poor little Tohru!"

Hatori smiled a sly smile, "You're such a dog."

"Why thank-you!"

"goodbye Shigure." Hatori said finally as he drove away from his friend.

Shigure picked-up the rest of his things and walked into the house, where, he saw Tohru standing at the bottom of a winding staircase, looking around at the vast house, which echoed your footsteps. "Wow! This is the biggest house I've ever seen!" She said, and heard herself over and over again as her voice echoed throughout the whole mansion.

Shigure smiled, "Have you chosen a room yet?" He asked as he approached the stairs.

"No, this is as far as I've gotten yet...I don't think I can take another step...It feels wrong to be walking in such a big house...if it is a house." She trailed off and stared around her in awe.

Yuki appeared at the top of the stairs. "I thought I'd lost you, come on Tohru, there's quite a few rooms to choose from." He said leaning on the railing at the top of the stairs.

Tohru looked up at hi as he heald out his hand to her. "Come on then!" She started walking up the stairs towards him. They held hands, and Yuki led her towards the bedrooms, so she could choose one. There were so many to choose from, Kyo had claimed the largest one he could find in ten seconds.

Tohru came across an even bigger one, which both her and Yuki walked into. "Wow! I think it's bigger than our whole house! Twice! Shigure will most likely have this one." Tohru said. She noticed that the walls were very pink and so was the bedroom furnature.

"I think this room suits you the best Tohru. You should have it." Yuki suggested.

Tohru shooke her head. "It's too big for me! I only need a small room..." She said meekly.

"Tohru, I don't think there's a small room in this house. Besides, this is a pink room, it's not like anyone is going to take it, we're all boys." Yuki pointed out.

"That's true...but...I've been given so many things! I'm not well suited to all this... money. I was never very wealthy, and now here you all are, and I feel out of place. That's all." Tohru explained. She put her things down on the floor, and unzipped her suitcase. "Wow, you brought my whole bedroom with you!" She observed as she pulled her clothes out from the bags and put them away in the drawers and hung her many, (as in 5) dresses in the very large walk in closet that was the size of her bedroom back at the house. She found that there were quite a few other dresses in the closet, and that they were all in her size.

"What? This is weird Yuki come quick! Look! All these dresses fit me! Perhaps the last person here was the same size as me, and forgot all her dresses! Oh that would be terrible! We should tell someone!"

She finished hanging all her dresses up and then she wandered out into the hall and walked right into a housemaid. "Oh excuse me miss. Do you find your room to your liking?"

"Oh yes, It's wonderful thank-you! But I think someone forgot all their clothes here! My closet is full!" Tohru exclaimed.

The maid chuckled, "Oh no miss Tohru, those are for you to have. Master Ayame had those made for you. Don't worry, there's nothing too bad in there. Enjoy your stay!" She said cheerfully and wandered off down the hall to see to the others.

"Ayame...wait a minute..." She ran back into her closet and rummaged through the many gorgeous dresses that had been designed for her. She found the one she was looking for. "Hey Yuki remember when we went to Ayame's store, he made me try on this dress, and now look, he's gone and given it to me! I feel so loved!" She hugged the dress close to her.

Yuki smiled. "I guess this is what Shigure was talking about. Oh it was so nice of him to lend them to me for the summer!" Tohru exclaimed hugging them cose.

Shigure walked into the room. "Lend them to you? No no, Tohru, these are _yours_ now. I don't think Ayame needs them all that much. Ever since you came over, he's been designing dresses for you...sorry, but he wen't through your closet last time he was over, and scolded me something terrible..." Shigure cringed. "Anyways, he became somewhat protective of you then, and I had to keep him out of the house, and he started designing. Before i knew it, he called me up, and learned that we were going to the summer home, and had them all transported here. Sorry."

"He's giving them to me? Oh no no nonono! There's like, fifty! in one closet, and I have three! That's like, 150 dresses! Too many clothes to wear in a lifetime!"

"So tell that to Ayame, but I'm too tired to do anything about it right now, stop being so selfish. Do you think you're too good for gifts? Too good for us?"

"No...Shigure, I'm sorry that you think that of me...if I'm being selfish I-I'm so sorry! I'll accept them! I'm sorry! I never thought I was good enough for you! I feel so bad!"

"Tohru, don't cry! I was only joking with you!" But it was too late, Tohru was already in tears.

She was crying over and over the same words, "Sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"I forgive you Tohru! I forgive you already!" Shigure said frantically, he was almost in hysterics, he looked to Yuki, who was beginning to laugh guiltily. "Turn her off Yuki! Turn her off! She's making me feel bad now!"

Yuki was now laughing very hard, to which Tohru stopped crying. "Tohru, he was just kidding with you! Now accept the gift, and let's go explore the house already! I've been absolutely dying to see the whole thing!" Yuki said as he had finally had enough of their little sharade and grabbed Tohru's arm and they walked off to explore.

They walked down the hall, and found a map stand. "It's like being at a hotel! With infinate access to everywhere!"

"Well, it is used as a hotel usually, but Shigure rented the whole place out for the summer, just for us, so we could have some peace and quiet, isn't it great! Just so you could heal-up, and not have to cook and clean!"

"He did all this for me?"

"Well, not just for you, he's also rebuilding the house back home, he wants it to be twice the size, and if you think that that room is big...well, I won't say anything yet. Hey, look! Thay have an art studio! Let's go check it out!"

"Okay!" Tohru followed behind Yuki, who was looking at his map and glancing up every now and then.

"You shouldn't go anywhere alone in this place Tohru, you could get lost, so...my room's just across the hall from you, so if you're going anywhere, you should come and get me first. I'll go with you, or Kyo and I'm not sure you should ask Shigure...short of going on your own, at least until you get used to the house." Yuki was saying, but Tohru wasn't listening to him, so when he turned around and asked her if she understood, she just nodded her head

"Uh hun" Yuki took that she understood.

They finally reached the art studio, and walked into a completely white room. There was a few easles with large canvases on them. There was a small corner full of paint bottles and paintbrushes and many different painting tools. There were some painter's smocks to cover all their clothes, so that they didn't get them dirty. "You want to?" Yuki asked putting on a smock.

"Yeah, it looks so fun! The walls are all padded!" Tohru said jovial and getting a pallet full of colours. She walked to an easel and started painting. When she was done, she showed Yuki.

"Wow, I never knew you were so good at art!" He commented on her picture of a cat chasing a rat, but the rat outsmarting the cat and getting it stuck in a knot in a tree.

After that, they went exploring again, this time Tohru wanted to see the gardens. There was a flower garden and also a vegetable garden. While they were out in the gardens, they heard a loud clang, and a loud voice came onto a speaker saying

"Dinner is being served in the dining room, would all house members please proceed to the dining room." and then it was gone.

"Wow, our dinner is even announced! I was beginning to get a bit hungry, heh, it must be psychic!" Tohru said as they looked at the map again to find the dining room.

It was very close, only a thirty second walk from outside...unlike the art room, which had been a ten minute walk from the gardens. When they entered the dining room, Shigure was already there, and so was Kyo. They'd decided not to wait for Yuki and Tohru, as it was a buffet and there were many tables at which to sit.

They all sat down together, and Yuki and Tohru went to get some food from the buffet. "Wow! There's so much food here! I don't think we're going to be able to eat it all!"

"Oh well, now you can have as much as you want, and I bet you that all the vegetables here are from the gardens out there." Yuki said to Tohru as he got himself a heaping serving of mixed vegetables.

Tohru smiled and tried to do the same, but she couldn't hold her plate, and put it on, so Yuki did it for her. They got back to the table and they all ate a very plesant meal. There was enough for Yuki and Kyo so they didn't have to fight for the last of anything, and they only did that for Tohru's food.

After dinner, it was pretty late, because they'd all sat around the table playing Rich man Poor man until it was dark. So they went to bed.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter eight**

Tohru found it difficult to get to sleep, because she could only lie on one side. She'd feel much better in four weeks, when she could take off the cast. She finally did though, because she woke-up with a start in the morning. She sat up quickly, and realized that in her sleep she'd lain on her arm and it sent a jolt of pain into her, so she woke-up.

It was morning and the light was shining, so she decided to get up anyways. She got dressed, which took her a very long time, in one of the stylish day dresses that Ayame had made for her.

It was a pastel yellow colour, and had a ribbon tied it in the back. It had a halter top look to it. She like it best because she only had to zip it up at the side. She felt beautiful, and it was very rare that she did. She wanted to look her best for Yuki, she found herself wanting to look great more and more for him as of late, she figured it was to compensate for her ugly cast. She sighed at her reflection.

"Huh, strange, I've never been one to be vain at all...I feel terrible! I just want to go back to bed and sleep, but I promised Yuki we'd go to the pond today..." she sighed and then smiled, "Oh well, now that it's all out of my system, I can get on with my beautiful day! And isn't it just a wonderful day today?" She asked her stuffed animal on the bed.

She walked out of her room, and met Yuki in the hallway, he was leaning against the wall beside her door, waiting for her.

"Oh Hi Yuki! Were you waiting long?" She asked as she linked her good arm with his, and they started walking down the hallway to the pond.

"Oh no, I'd just got out of my room. And might I say that you look absolutely wonderful in that dress Tohru?" Yuki smiled at her and kissed her cheek.

Tohru blushed and turned her face away. "Oh no...I don't think so." Tohru replied shyly. Her face turned red and she hid her face from Yuki with her hands.

He laughed slightly. _You're so adorable, I wish I could just hug you close to me._ Yuki thought to himself as he gazed at her. He instead kissed her cheek.

They rounded a corner and smashed into Shigure, who had been spying on them, Tohru had crashed into him, and he turned into a dog.

"Shigure, Oh I'm so sorry!" Tohru cried as she held onto her arm as tears ran down her cheeks at the pain.

"Tohru! Are you alright? You don't have to cry about turning me into a dog! Oh Your arm, you must have hit me with your arm! ARE YOU ALRIGHT TOHRU!" Shigure shouted at her.

"Yes yes I'm alright! I just hurt it a bit is all. Nothing big!" Yuki was almost paniking, but it seems out of character for him to be a panicker, so...He was very worried over Tohru, and punched Shigure.

"You shouldn't have been spying on us you pervert! If you hadn't been there, or if you had warned us before we crashed into you, this mightn't have happenend! This is all your fault Shigure! Get out of my sight!" He said and guided Tohru gently away from him.

Shigure shrugged and picked his clothes up in his mouth and walked back to his bedroom.

Yuki and Tohru were finally out of earshot.

"Are you alright miss Honda? I hope he didn't hurt you at all, because if he did..."

"No no, I'm alright Yuki! It's just a cast, I don't mind at all, just as soon as I get this thing off my arm, the sooner I'll get better." Tohru said to Yuki with a big smile on her face. They then continued down to the pond. It was beautiful.

The rest of the week was also as peaceful. The time for Tohru's cast to be removed came around, and Hatori came over to the Summer home to remove it for Tohru. That afternoon, Tohru's cast had been removed. Her arm didn't hurt anymore, and she was able to do things with it!

It felt weird for the first week She wasn't able to do much with it, because it had been out of use for the past six weeks, but now that she was able to use it, she was at every opportunity that she got. She soon built up her muscles again, and was back to her usual self by the time they were packing to go back home.

Tohru was excited to see the new house, and was giddy for the whole day. She was very worried about how she was going to bring all of her new dresses back, and where she was going to put them all... She packed up her bags, and made sure to put her most favorate dresses in with the rest of her clothes, she then approached Shigure.

"Shigure?"

"Why yes dearest Tohru? What ever is the matter that I might be able to resolve?" He replied using quite a poetic tone that Tohru was a bit taken aback.

She soon came back, and asked her question. "What am I going to do with all of the dresses that Ayame made for me? I couldn't possibly fit them all in the car..." She looked at him worried.

"Oh dear dear Tohru! You don't think that Ayame would be inconsiderate enough to dump a pile of preciously hand stitched dresses on you and give you no means as to take them home?" Shigure answered her.

This made Tohru feel bad for thinking that he had. "Oh, no, not at all! I just...well...how am I going to get them all home?" She asked again, not understanding Shigure's speech.

"He left you the trailer in which he brought them in, for you, and the maids are presently transporting them all back into the trailer. Don't you worry about a thing Tohru dear! Everything is being taken care of! You just relax, afterall, you will be going back to school in two days!" He said joyously.

"Oh, alright then. Thank-you Shigure." Tohru said a bit dazed. _School in two days! Oh man! Here we go again! OH NO! I've not been able to save-up anything over the summer! I have no money to pay for school!_ She thought violently. _I couldn't ever ask for money...I know, I'll just explain to them what happened...somehow...maybe they'll give me an extension?_ She thought as her shoulders slumped. She went back to her room and put her head in her hands.

"Oh what am I going to do?" She mumbled to herself. "Mom, I'm so sorry! I let you down! I'm never going to be able to save up enough! I can't believe I forgot about work! I'm never going to be able to pay that much! It all has to be in on the first day too!" She thought out loud, forgetting that her door was still open.

Shigure heard this, and placed his hand on his chin. He chose not to say anything for the moment, perhaps things would work-out.

The rest of the morning was devoted to packing their things, and loading them into the trailer. Hatori came at 10:30 am and they were gone by 11:00am.

Tohru was asleep for the majority of the thirteen hour ride back, she also sat in the back between Yuki and Kyo, and this was a much quieter ride than the previous had been. They drove into their driveway at midnight. All three, Yuki, Tohru and Kyo were all asleep, so Shigure decided to leave them there until the car and trailers had been unpacked.

He and Hatori brought all the stuff into the new house. He smiled at all the more rooms that were there. He had his office, where his computer was, and then in an adjoining room leading from his office, was a library with all of his books there. He smiled with satisfaction.

"This is good." He said out loud. He then helped Hatori bring everything else out of the car and into the house. There was a larger dining room now, so they just piled everything on the table.

Then they went and woke Yuki and Kyo up. Tohru was a different story, she just rolled over onto Yuki and turned him into a rat.

Yuki sighed and Hatori picked her up and brought her into her new bedroom and put her in her bed. He couldn't stay the night, because he had an appointment in the morning, so he had to leave.

Shigure waved goodbye to him from his new livingroom and watched his headlights disolve into the black of night as he drove back to the Sohma house.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter nine**

The next morning, Tohru awoke with a start. "Where am I?" She asked the large room that surrounded her. She drew back her covers and walked around her new room. she had a pastel pink carpet, and pastel blue and yellow walls.

The paint was dabbed on the walls, so in some places it was a bit green, but it all looked very pretty. She had a pastel blue coloured dresser with a mirror on it, and also a pink bed and a yellow desk.

There was a walk-in closet in her room, and two doors. The first she went through led to her own personal bathroom. It was also very girly with strawberries as the theme. There was a blue strawberry for the cold water handle, and a red one for hot in her sink and in the bath. The shower curtain was dotted with little strawberries, and the shampoo and conditioner was strawberry scented.

Tohru smiled, "Oh this is all so beautiful!" She left the bathroom, and went out the other door into the hallway. Now, was she upstairs or downstairs?...she walked further down the hallway, until she came to an open gallery sort of thing, where she saw down into the rest of the house. She saw the dining room, where Yuki and Kyo were gathering their things off the table.

"Good morning! Isn't the new house wonderful?" She asked cheerfully.

Kyo shrugged. "It's nice I guess. Not as nice as Sohma house, but you can't really complain then can you?" He shrugged again.

Yuki smiled. "I really like it." He said beaming up at Tohru, who smiled back at him.

"You should come see my room! It's so big!" She said excited.

"Yeah, in a minute Tohru, I'm trying to unpack here!" Kyo said slightly harsher than usual.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kyo..."

"No, don't be, I'm sorry, I'm just in a bad mood."

"Oh did something happen?" Tohru asked.

Kyo glowered at Yuki.

"He only got beat again, nothing to worry about Tohru." Yuki replied as he came towards the spiral stariscase to go with Tohru to see her bedroom. He smiled when he saw her room. It just suited her so well.

They then went into Yuki's room. His was a greyish blue wall and a grey carpet. His bed was blue and the rest was fairly plain. His was the same size as Tohru's room, other than the closet, which wasn't hardly as big as Tohru's.

Her closet was roughly the size of their old kitchen, and had many mini closets with all her dresses in them. There was also a closet for her school uniforms, and then a dresser for her pants and t-shirts and shorts.

Yuki's closet was big enough, but Tohru had much more clothes than him, now that Ayame had found out that she didn't have very many.

They went downstairs together and Tohru gathered her stuff off of the kitchen table and brought them back up into her bedroom. She sorted everything into it's rightful place, and just as she was putting the last piece of clothing away, she heard a faint knock on her door.

"Come in." She called to the person there, when the door oppened, she saw Shigure.

"So, how do you like your new room Tohru?"

"Oh I love it Shigure! Thank-you so much! I'm so happy! Nobody has ever done anything like this for me before! I would hug you, but you probably don't want to turn into an animal." She said sincerely.

Shigure chuckled. "Well, the reason I came in here wasn't to ask you how you liked your room, but to tell you that your grandfather is on the phone."

"Oh he is? Where's the phone?" Tohru asked.

Shigure led her to the one out in the hall, and she picked-up.

"Hello?"

"Hello Tohru. The reason I'm calling is because I heard that you had been on vacation all summer, and I wondered if you would like me to pay your school fee. You could just pay me back the money later when you start work again."

"Oh you would do that for me grandpa? Oh thank-you so much! I promise I'll repay you. The house was being rebuilt so we had to stay at the Sohma summer home for the summer, otherwise I would have the money..." Tohru explained.

Shigure listened.

"I know Tohru, You're a good kid. I don't think any less of you. So how is your arm, I heard that you broke it."

"Oh yes, it's fine now. Sorry for worrying you. I was just a bit clumsy and fell and broke it. I guess it was a pretty bad fall, because I don't remember anything at all, but I'm all better now!" She told him cheerfully.

"Alright, just take it easy, and don't overdo yourself at work, you tend to have a habit of doing that."

"I know grandpa, I'll take it easy. I'm sorry, I just like to do my best that's all..."

"Right, so just pop over later today and pick-up the money. Okay grandpa, I'll see you later."

"And Tohru,"

"yes?"

"I'm very proud of you."

"You are?" "Yes I am! It fills my heart to see you happy like this after all that you've been through. You really are admirable."

"Oh grandpa. I'm not really..."

"So I'll see you later then?"

"Yes, I'll come over around three. Goodbye until three!"

"Goodbye Tohru."

She hung-up the phone and smiled. "Oh grandpa. You're always so nice to me!" She mumbled to herself.

Shigure spoke-up "So, you've got your school fees all sorted out then?"

Tohru turned to face him. "Yes. Grandpa is going to pay the first one, because I couldn't work over the summer, and then I'll repay him once I start working again." She went a bit red in the face, embarassed that he had to find-out.

"That's good then." _How does she do it all on her own? It's like she doesn't want anyone to help her. She relies solely upon herself!_ Shigure thought as they walked down to the kitchen.

Tohru immediately started looking for something to make for breakfast.

Later that morning, Ayame came over to greet the new house. "Wow! Shigure this is beautiful! Oh and look what we have here! Why! If it isn't dear Tohru wearing...Oh she's wearing a dress that I made for her!"

Tohru smiled and her face wen't red. "Thank-you so much Ayame for the dresses! They're beautiful! You didn't have to make them for me! I don't know how I'm going to wear them all! There's so many! But I love them all!"

"I guess I did get a bit carried away...but I just couldn't stop!" He laughed. "Now, where's the tea?" He slapped his hand on the table and Tohru scurried off into the kitchen to make tea for everyone.

Yuki had gone to the school to help with the last minute preperations for the first day of school. He was the president of the student body afterall. Tohru had been invited to be the treasurer, but she'd refused, she had enough to deal with in class, and there was homework, and also her job, and housekeeping. She thought it impossible to live with another responsability, so she declined. The next person was the president of the Prince Yuki Fanclub. He was dreading this year.

Kyo laughed very hard when he heard about this, and Tohru felt very guilty about refusing the position.

"Don't fret Tohru, you do have a very tight schedule, I'm sorry for nominating you, I just thought you would be good at it." Yuki had told her.

She sighed, "I'm sorry Yuki, maybe next year." She'd replied to him.

Yuki gazed out the window of his student council president's office and sighed. He had another hour there until he could go home, and then there was school tomorrow, and he would have to go in an hour earlier. That would mean Tohru and he couldn't walk together.

"Hey, President Sohma?"

Yuki's attention snapped back to the room, where he saw his treasurer at his door. "Yes, what is it?" He asked her.

"Uh, where do you want me to put these?" She heald-up a package of newsletters that were to be distrubuted the next day at school.

"Oh, umm. I guess I could leave them on my desk." He looked at his surprisingly tidy desk.

The girl smiled at Yuki and placed them on the corner of his desk, while batting her eyes at him.

Yuki though, had returned to his daydreaming about Tohru being his assistant. She left the room.

At 2:30, Tohru showed-up at the school. She asked the girl who had taken the position offered to Tohru where she might find Yuki.

"Why do you want to know Honda? Why would the Prince want to talk to a poor little peasant girl like you?" She replied snottily.

"Oh, well, I just...Could you please tell me where I can find him?"

"No, I don't know where he would be!" She shot dirtily at her.

"Oh, well thank-you anyways." Tohru replied and went to find someone else. She was directed to the Student council office, where she found Yuki sitting at his desk looking over the paperwork. He lifted his head when he heard his door open.

"Oh Tohru!" He looked surprised.

"Hey Yuki." She replied and took the chair opposite his desk.

"So, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I just missed you is all. I thought we could walk over to my Grandpa's house after, I have to pick something-up...oh, and also to warn you that Shigure is having Ayame and Hatori over for dinner tonight...don't get mad." She said hesitantly, unaware that a certain President of a certain Prince Yuki Fanclub was listening to their conversation.

"Oh, can't we run away or something? I really don't want to see Ayame right now. He'll start on about how I should run the school...ugh" He said as a shiver ran up his spine thinking about long silver braids and man purses.

"Oh, but we can't run away! We'd be leaving Kyo to fend for himself!" Tohru chuckled.

Yuki raised an eyebrow. "So Ayame is there now? I see now, why you came here!"

"No not at all! I just...well, I missed you a bit..." Tohru said going red.

"I missed you too Tohru." Yuki said affectionately, making Tohru go even redder.

"You don't mind hanging out here for another twenty minutes do you? Then we can go to your Grandfather's."

"Oh, yeah, we need to go shopping after that...sorry."

"That's alright, the more time we spend out of that house the better!" Yuki chuckled.

"I don't mind waiting...perhaps I can organize you shelves for you..." They looked over to the disaster area.

Yuki grinned and scratched the back of his head. "I was getting to that..."

Tohru smiled and set to work. She had them looking perfect by the time three rolled around.

"Wow Tohru, that looks great! Oh, and just because you're not on Student Council, it doesn't mean that you can't come in here. So visit all you want!" He said beaming.

"Well, I guess...if you say it's okay..." She replied hestiantly.

"I do." He said in a noble tone. Tohru giggled.

"Are you all done now?"

"Yep, let's get out of here. Your Grandfather is probably waiting for you. Then we walk very slowly back home alright?"

"Well, Shigure gave me a curfew...he said to start dinner by five...sorry."

"Darn!" He stood and grabbed his bag.

Tohru grabbed her purse and they walked out of the office, and out of the school. "Oh, wait, I forgot to close my window." Yuki remembered as they walked out the doors.

They turned around and hurried through the school to the office. Yuki unlocked the door again and went and closed his window.

They set off again, this time they made it all the way to Tohru's Grandfather's house. Yuki sat on the couch while Tohru and her Grandfather visited for a few minutes. He gave her a package, and she put it in her purse.

They then left for the grocery store where Tohru bought a big dinner with the money that Shigure had given her. They would have a turkey dinner. It was heavy to carry back, but Yuki and Tohru managed somehow.

They got back in the house at about four thirty, and Tohru ran upstais quick and changed into her cooking clothes and started making dinner.

Yuki went upstairs and tidied the rest of his belongings away in his room, and came downstairs to join Ayame, Shigure and Hatori at the table, Kyo was hiding up on the roof. The conversation stopped as Yuki walked into the room.

"Oh dear brother! How wonderful it is to see you again!" Ayame declared as he spread his arms wide and stood to greet him.

Yuki walked past him and sat down at the table. It was the same table as before, only a different carpet, and more room. Ayame shrugged and sat back down.

The conversation continued with Ayame saying, "Now where were we?" Shigure was saying something about Tohru.

"Oh yeah, well, I just don't know what to do about her! She won't let anyone help her! It's like she can't become dependant on people, and open up to them! She keeps herself closed off from us... I'm a bit worried about her!" Shigure was saying.

Yuki's ears pricked-up. _Are they talking about Tohru?_

"Well, she has lost her mother, and her father. She probably feels that she can't rely on anyone anymore. Most likely she is afraid of being alone, and so, in order to overcome her fear, she won't let anyone get too close to her. She'll do everything for everyone, because she can depend on herself, but, she feels that if she were to be dependant on anyone else, they will leave her, like her parents left her." Hatori suggested.

"But she doesn't have to feel like that around us!" Shigure countered.

"She has built up a wall. She's closed herself off from the rest of the world, because she knows that she's not strong, and that in her little closed-off self is all the pain and suffering that she's had to keep in her, to make others around her happy." Hatori said and took another sip of his tea.

"Well, should I send her to counceling?" Shigure sugested. He downed the rest of his tea and put his cup down.

"What Tohru needs right now is a person to whom she can open up to. Share her feelings with, though, I assume that she can only share her feelings, if someone else's feelings are shared with her first." Hatori said, his eyes darting to Yuki and back to his tea.

Ayame smiled, "Then I will be the one to mend Tohru's broken heart!" He went to stand-up, but Shigure held his arm.

"No, there's only one person who can do that." All three faces turned to look at Yuki.

"It's not the same! I have nothing to share that I haven't already." Yuki told them.

"So, you've done it then? Oh you dirty! Deflowering poor Tohru like that!" Ayame and Shigure declared in unison.

Yuki made a disgusted face. "I'm not you Shigure. How could you even _think_ that?" Yuki frowned.

"Oh, then you haven't got as far as I thought then. Well, Aya, I still have the chance to make Tohru into a real woman." Shigure admitted.

Yuki stood-up abuptly "_You keep your hands off her!_" Yuki shouted.

Shigure and Ayame chuckled. "Ooo a bit posessive now are we Yuki?" Ayame questionned.

Yuki glared at them. "Don't bring her into this. You always do this! I don't want to do something, and you threaten me!" Yuki declared "I hate it!"

Shigure cocked his head to the side. "Aren't you supposed to be telling this to Tohru? You want her to open up to you don't you? You want your relationship to grow? Then trust her with your feelings, and she might trust you with hers." Shigure said in a moment of insight.

"Where did that come fom Shigure?" Hatori asked, one of his eyebrows raised.

"I have no idea." He replied in the same smart tone.

Yuki frowned and backed slowly out of the room and into the kitchen where Tohru was cooking. He found her humming and basting the turkey. "Can I help with anything?" He asked her.

She smiled at him "Well, you could cut the vegetables for a salad."

"Alright" He smiled back at her, but it wasn't the same anymore, something was different, he felt her holding back now, as before he hadn't know, and because he was doing it too it just felt natural. But if he wanted their relationship to move foreward, they needed to open themselves to eachother.

Tohru noticed that he wasn't himself. "Is something wrong Yuki?" She asked, concern in her voice.

Yuki smiled at her, "No, nothing is wrong. . . just different, that's all." He replied. He took a breath, _Open up to her, remember that it's for her own good, and you love her, you do really love her, and this is the best thing that's ever happened to you. Think of how lucky I am to have her! I still can't believe she loves me too, I'm cursed, and nothing good has ever come of it, but she doesn't look for appearances, she looks for the heart._ Thought Yuki, he found himself smiling at her, a smile of peace and love.

Tohru was blushing at the way he was looking at her. "Different how Yuki?" She asked frowning slightly.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Now isn't really a good time to talk. We'll talk tomorow, alright?" Yuki smiled a loving smile and kissed her lips gently. He pulled away and looked her in the eyes sincerely. "I love you Tohru." He whispered in her ear.

Tohru giggled.

Ayame gasped quietly as he and Shigure watched them. They went back into the dining room. "Did you see Yuki put the moves on her like that? Wow, he's good."

Hatori rolled his eyes. "You two are so immature. Leave poor Yuki alone, he gets enough hardship from his parents, and then there's Akito on top of that. He really has it in for Yuki, I mean, with what he did to Tohru and everything."

Ayame was still daydreaming. "Oh this is truly Yuki's day of romance, unlike when he and Tohru came to my shop, though I'd like to think that that is where it all started."

"No, It all started when she came and saw those stone animals I'd painted that morning so long ago, and when Yuki found out who it was he was all in awe, I think he'd had a crush on her...heh heh hehehehehehe" Shigure chuckled into his sleeve.

"Hey, when's dinner going to be ready?" Ayame called into the kitchen.

Tohru jumped a bit as she had been staring deeply into Yuki's eyes and they had been moving closer together. Their gazed was broken, "Oh, I'm making it!" Tohru shouted back. She breathed deeply, not realizing that she'd been holding her breath.

She went back to her work while Yuki picked-up the knife and began chopping up the vegetables.

Dinner was ready for six thirty and Kyo eventually came down from his hiding place because he smelled the wonderful aroma of Tohru's cooking. Dinner was cooked to perfection, and the salad, which Yuki had made himself, was very delicious.

Nobody could tell that Yuki had made it himself, and Tohru didn't say anything until after the meal. They all made sure to go to bed early that night, so that they would be well rested for the first day of school the next day.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter ten**

Tohru set her alarm clock, so that she would be sure not to be late. She'd bought some stuff to make pancakes with in the morning, and so she got up at 5:30, so she'd be able to make some for Yuki before he left at 6:30. She was in the kitchen making them when Shigure came downstairs.

"Wow, you're up early!" He commented.

Tohru yawned, "Oh well, I wanted to make sure that yuki got some pancakes too, because he has to leave an hour earlier than us today." Tohru said as she poured some pancake batter onto the frying pan and watched it sizzle.

Shigure smiled at her back thinking about how cute it all was. Just as Tohru had finished setting the table and put the pancakes on the table, Yuki came downstairs to the kitchen.

"Good morning Yuki!" She said brightly holding a plate of pancakes out in front of her with a big smile on her face. She looked like an actress in a Betty Crocker comercial. She had the whole apron and oven mits get-up and even looked the part of a housewife.

Yuki looked at her, and blinked. "Good morning Tohru. Those look very good." He stated as his tummy rumbled.

Tohru laughed her morning laugh, and put them down on the table and they all dug in, except for Kyo, who didn't need to get up for another half hour.

Yuki left, and Tohru went to have a shower. She got herself all prettied-up for the first day of school, and put on a uniform. She smiled, and grabbed her backpack and went down to make the lunches for school.

Kyo was up by then and had almost finished the rest of the pancakes. "Hey Kyo, what do you want for lunch today?" She openend the fridge door and suggested a few things.

They finally decided upon leftovers from last night, and she quickly made up three lunches. Yuki had suggested that she come and bring him his when she got to school.

Once she was done, she decided to leave a bit early so that she could drop off Yuki's lunch to him.

Kyo didn't want to leave early, so she went on ahead by herself. When she got to school, she found Yuki in the student council office.

"Hey Yuki!" She said upon entering. "I brought your lunch for you. Kyo and I decided upon leftovers from last night." She said.

He smiled. "That sounds great Tohru. Speaking of Kyo, where is he?" Yuki asked. He'd seen Hatsuharu and Momiji earlier today, because they wanted to be at school early, so they could hang out.

"Oh, he stayed home. He didn't see the point in coming early to school." Tohru answered. "Well, here you are, and I'm sorry for bothering you guys, I'll see you in class Yuki!" Tohru said tensely as she was getting very icy glares from Matoko, the tresurer and President of the Prince Yuki Fanclub.

"Whatever Honda! Next time knock before you barge in like that!" She said icily.

"I'm sorry, bye." She said and escaped the office.

She went to find Momiji and Hatsuharu, and found them talking to some other boys in their year.

Momiji caught a glimpse of her and started running towards her with his arms spred wide. "Tohru!" He exclaimed.

Tohru thought he was going to hug her when he jumped into the air. She saw the next second pass in slow motion.

Momiji leapt with the intention of landing in her arms, and out of nowhere he was struck down by Kyo who had magically appeared to save the day.

Hatsuharu, not seeing Kyo, slapped his hand over his face and closed his eyes. Time came back all of a sudden as Momiji crashed to the floor.

"Waaaaaaaaaa! Tohru, Kyo hit me!" Momiji cried as he sat-up.

"You stupid brat! Tohru's off limits!" He announced as Tohru went very red in the face and shuffled her feet.

Hatsuharu breathed a sigh of relief as his hand slid from his face. "What? Why?" Momiji asked. He'd stopped crying and looked up at Tohru with big puppy eyes.

"Because, you'll have to ask a certain boyfriend of hers if you can hug her." Haru replied. He looked at Tohru, "So Yuki and you eh?"

Tohru was very red. "Uhhh, well, I...Yuki and I...I don't think he...wants it all around the school...if you know what I mean." She mumbled.

"Yeah, The fanclub girls would make it very hard for Tohru should they find out. They don't even know that she's living in the same house as him, they'd flip if they heard that, and now she's dating him and all..." Hatsuharu explained.

They were all alone now, just Kyo, Momiji, Haru and Tohru. The boys had all gone when Momiji started acting strange.

"Yeah, well if it's a secret, then why are we talking about it?" Momiji asked innocently.

Tohru was still very red when Saki and Arisa showed up and they became all defensive of her. "What have you done now orange top? Tohru are you alright? You haven't been crying have you? Orangey here hasn't embarassed you already has he? You pig! You should be locked-up!" Arisa started when she saw Tohru's red face.

"Oh no! No no no! I've just been running a lot...I...uhh...felt like a jog, so I ran here..." Tohru said to cover up her red face.

"Tohru, you're not very good at lying." Saki stated as she saw right through Tohru's lies.

"Tohru doesn't lie! Don't you dare accuse her of lying! SOME FRIENDS YOU ARE!" Kyo shouted, he'd appointed himself as Tohru's bodyguard, so that she wouldn't have a hard time if the truth ever got out.

"Okay Okay! Take it easy lover boy!" Arisa teased and hugged Tohru, "You're not to shout around our poor little Tohru! Think of her ears!"

"Yes, her ears are precious." Saki added to Arisa's statement.

Kyo went red with anger and stalked away.

Tohru smiled a bit after him, and turned to her friends.

"Well..." Arisa prompted.

"Well what?" Tohru asked.

"Where have you been all summer! We see you one day, and come over the next and the house is being demolished! We thought you'd been killed!" Arisa said loudly.

Tohru cringed. "Oh I'm so sorry...I got home from the hospital and Shigure said we were moving for the rest of the summer, and I had no time to call you." Tohru said.

"You were in the hospital? What for?" Saki demanded.

"I guess I never told you about that then did I? Well, I broke my arm, and had a concussion from falling down a cliff..." Tohru trailed off as she saw that Hatsuharu, who knew what had actually happened, as did Momiji, was looking at her.

"You fell down a cliff! What! I knew you weren't smart...but how could you just...someone pushed you, that's it! KYO I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Arisa ran after Kyo to hurt him very much.

"Oh, no not at all! Kyo wouldn't push me!" Tohru cried after Arisa but it was useless, because she was already far gone.

"Oh well." Momiji said as he took Tohru by the hand and led her to her classroom along with Saki.

Yuki was waiting for her at the door, and Kyo was already there, with a bit of a bruise.

The rest of the day was nothing special, only there was a picnic where Yuki and Kyo had a bit of a brawl, and Kyo flew into a tree.

Yuki had a hard time getting rid of his entourage, and eventually he had to tell them to go away, since the hints weren't working.

Once they were all alone, Tohru, her friends, Yuki, Momiji and Haru; Kyo had gone off somewhere after his disagreement with Yuki; Momiji piped-up. "Hey guess what I found!" He said excitedly.

"What did you find?" Tohru asked.

Momiji grinned. "I found a Go-Carting track. I think that we should go this weekend. It'll be fun! You're going to come right Tohru? You too Yuki! Are you going to go? Please please go with" He urged.

Tohru smiled, "I guess I could go..." She said, she was going to work every night that week, and so she would have a few extra dollars to spend.

Everyone else agreed to going, Haru with excitement. "Wow! Go-Karting!" He secretly wished that Kyo would go...just so he could squash him in the track.

"Well, what about you Yuki?" Momiji prompted after he'd finished cheering over Tohru and the others.

Yuki reflected over something. "Well, I suppose I could go, if Tohru's going." Yuki said.

"Yay!" Momiji exclaimed as he stood and grabbed Tohru's hands and started dancing around.

Tohru was swept away like usual, and didn't quite know what to say. She had been living with the Sohmas for over two years now, and she was still getting used to their way of life. (They are in grade eleven now, I'm not sure how the Japanese school system works, so I'm just going to have them in a normal highschool, like North American.)

When she thought about how there was only two more years to school, she became worried. She was brought back to reality when the lunchbell rang. They had ten minutes to get back to classes.

Tohru had gym next, they had to do a lot on the first day of school. The teachers were always telling her to try out for teams, but she was too much of a ditz to do it. She had no time either. Tohru tried her best, and even though the day was hot, and she wasn't very healthy, she still pushed herself.

Tohru has never been one to be very good at sports, she doesn't have a very big lung capacity, and gets faint very often, and therefore is sick a lot of the time.

Her last class of the day was math, which she was very bad at. She was totally exhausted when school was done, but she had to go straight to work.

It was her first day back, and so she worked herself very hard, and felt better once she was done. Her cheeks were very pink, and she was sweating, so she got home and had a quick shower, and went to do her homework. She struggled through it, and eventually fell asleep at 1:30 on her desk, her math homework almost finished.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter eleven**

The next day at school, she took it easy in gym, and felt sleepy, but fit when she went to work. She did the same, and tottered home that evening.

She did her homework, and got it all done this time. She went to bed at 12am, in her own bed this time. She awoke very refreshed in the morning, and ready for action.

"Good morning Shigure!" She said cheery when Shigure tottered sleepily into the kitchen that morning. She was making french toast for everyone.

"Oh, good morning Tohru! You're looking much better today, not like yesterday. You looked so tired I thought you were going to faint when you walked in after work." He commented and sat down at the table in the next room over to read the morning paper.

Tohru continued making breakfast and hummed hapily. They were going go-karting that weekend, and she had to save up enough money for her school tuition, but Tohru wasn't worried. She'd taken a few more shifts for next week, and would be making a lot of money now. Tohru was well on her way to paying back her grandfather, and even saving up for post secondary education!

Yuki walked into the kitchen as he smelled something burning. "Ahh Tohru! The food is burning!" He cried as he rushed foreward.

Tohru snapped out of her daydream. "Oh no! I'm so sorry!" She apologized and threw away the ruined piece of toast. Then stuck another one in the frying pan. "Sorry sorry! I was just...umm...

thinking about stuff, and forgot..." She mumbled as her face went very red.

Yuki smiled,"It's alright Tohru! Everyone makes mistakes." He said cheerfully to Tohru. _At least she keeps her head when she makes mistakes...unlike Kagura...who nearly burned down the whole kitchen last year._ Yuki thought as he got down a couple of plates for everyone, and helped Tohru bring the food into the dining room.

Tohru's cooking was as perfect as usual, and even Kyo came down earlier than usual because it smelled so good.

There was one piece of toast left, Kyo was eyeing it hungrily, as was Yuki. Kyo went for it at the same time that Yuki did. There was quite a bit of snarling.

"You don't need any more food Kyo. You're fat enough as it is!" Yuki spat at him. The truth was that they were both very skinny.

Tohru was fretting a bit "Guys don't fight! It's all my fault! I burnt one! I shouldn't have been daydreaming! I'm so sorry! But why don't you just split it!"

Kyo glowered "Share with a rat? Yeah right!" He shot with a dirty look to Yuki.

"Yeah, who would share with a stupid cat either?" Yuki added.

Things were beginning to look a bit heated as neither fork would leave the plate.

Shigure rolled his eyes and brought his knife between them. He quickly sliced the toast directly down the middle. Both faces turned upon him, but Yuki shrugged and ate his piece. Kyo did the same.

It was time to go to school, so they all took off out the door after breakfast. Yuki and Tohru were holding hands, and Kyo was in a foul mood.

Today at school was the grade nine orientation day. There were two new Sohmas this year, but they weren't animals. Twins named Ryou and Minae, Haru was their older brother.

Ryou was a boy with spikey brown hair, he could never get it to lie flat. He had brown eyes, and even if he wasn't part of the zodiac, he still had the looks of one.

Minae was a girl. She had flaming red hair, which looked like it should belong to the zodiac, but it was from her mother. She had bright vivid green eyes.

The two twins didn't look anything alike, but they were very close. Yuki, Haru, Momiji and Tohru went over to greet them once they found them. Haru gave his brother a noogie, and his sister a pat on the head, because he couldn't hug her.

"Hello Haru!" Minae exclaimed as she saw him. She smiled big, her smile was very prettty.

"Hey Minae! How's mom and dad?" He asked, because he'd been living in the main house, with Momiji, and his parents didn't live there, he never really got to see his family.

"Oh, they're alright I guess. Same as usual. How are you?" She asked him. She knew about the zodiac thing, and had been very sad when he'd gone to live at the main house instead of with them, but it was the usual thing to happen. Haru's mother was very protective, and everyone thought it the best after he turned black so frequently.

"Good. You? And Ryou what about you? Not getting into too much trouble are you?" He asked.

"Oh we're good too. It's nice seeing you again." Minae replied for him. She looked past him to Yuki and Momiji. "Hi Momiji, and Yuki! I havent seen you since...New Years...like a year ago." She smiled at them.

Momiji jumped out from behind Haru. "Hey Minae! Ryou! You guys are so going to love it here!" He jumped up and down like a bunny rabbit.

Ryou, who had stayed mostly silent until now, pointed at Tohru. "Who are you? I'm Ryou Sohma." He held out his hand to Tohru, who took it immediately.

"Oh, I'm Tohru Honda, it's so nice to meet you!" She shook his hand and bowed, then stood up smiling.

"Nice to meet you Tohru, it's alright if I call you that isn't it?" He asked politely, observing her intently.  
"Oh yes please! I can call you Ryou?" She asked grinning.

"Sure."

"Hey Ryou don't hog her all to yourself!" Minae shot out as she took Tohru's hand once Ryou had dropped it. "I'm Minae! I really like to meet new people Tohru! Friends right?" She grinned.

Tohru smiled "Yeah yeah!"

Yuki looked at Haru suspiciously. Haru was frowning a bit. "Hey Yuki," Haru whispered in his ear so that his sibblings couldn't hear. "I think Ryou's crushing on your girlfriend there..."

Yuki's eyes openend wide. "He's two years younger than her though!" Yuki whispered back.

Haru shrugged "Not really, the twins were held back a year." He smiled sly at Yuki, who was going a bit pale.

"You don't think..."

"No, probably she's not even noticed it yet..."

"Well, I guess...hey! Who told you about Tohru and I?"

"Nobody, I just figured it out...and Kyo might have let something slip...sort of..."

Yuki's face went even paler, he now looked like he'd seen a gohst.

"Yuki! Are you alright?" Tohru asked concerned. She came nearer to him and put her hand on his forehead. "You're so pale!"

Yuki laughed nervoulsy, "uhhh, sorry! Tohru...can we talk for a second?" He took her wrist and pulled her away around the corner. Ryou looked after them.

"What is it Yuki?" She asked still concerned.

"Well...I think that people might know about us." Yuki said

"Oh... well it doesn't matter! It's bound to get out somehow. I guess we should tell them then eh?" She suggested.

"Yeah, but not now, at lunch perhaps, alright?" He smiled and kissed her lips. They stared at eachother for a while.

"Hey Tohru!" Came a voice from behind her. It was Arisa.

Yuki quickly backed away from Tohru, who was leaning with her back to the wall. Their faces went very red all of a sudden, and Arisa stopped in her tracks. "Were you two...doing what I think you were doing?" Her eyes oppenend wide. "Oh my GAWD! YOU'RE... TOHRU!" She cried and snatched her away from him! "Bad Yuki!" She scolded, and hugged Tohru close. Saki came up behind them, and looked curiously at them.

"What is going on here?" She asked.

"Yuki and Tohru were...they were...kissing!" Arisa exclaimed.

"What." Saki said as tears came to her eyes. "Oh my little Tohru! She's all grown up and leaving!" Both her and Arisa colapsed crying.

Tohru looked worried and crouched down beside them "Are you guys alright? I'm not leaving! I promise!" She assured them.

Yuki clapped his hand over his eyes. _Oh no not this anything but this! Now her friends are gonna go all Buffy on my ass!_ Yuki thought as he saw the changing in their demeanour. They were collecting themselves, and standing up.

Saki looked like a demon, electrical waves were crackling in the air. "I cannot allow this union. I sense a darkness around your heart, and I know that Tohru will get very hurt if she continues this course of action." Saki announced.  
"Again with the wave report Saki? But she's right! If Tohru gets hurt in any way, you're a dead man you hear!" Arisa shot at him. She looked lethal.

They were being pretty loud, so when Momiji and Hatsuharu came over, there wasn't any surprise why they were yelling. "Oh, so they found out?" Haru asked simply as he raised an eyebrow at Saki's hair, it was standing mostly on end because of the electricity.  
"Saki, don't actually shock him or anything." Arisa said as she'd cooled off for now. Saki gave a little pop as her electricity went away.

Yuki breathed a sigh of releif as he was frightened of being shocked. "Ummm, I don't quite know whow to reply to that. I won't hurt her, and...my intentions are honourable..."

"Good, and they'd better be too! Cause I'm her acting father, and if you mess up I'll get all up on your punk ass! You hear me?" Arisa said menacingly.  
"Guys! Quit it!" Tohru said, she was worried at how Yuki would take it. This left a silence hanging in the air. "Why would he hurt me? He loves me! And I love him! Nothing bad is going to happen!" Tohru said shaking. _Why are they being like this? Can't they be happy for me? I'm not a child anymore! I can fall in love right? Oh mom, what would you do in a sitch like this?_ She started at Arisa.

"Sorry, got a bit protective. It's okay Tohru. Look I'm sorry okay?" She said appologetically.

Saki hung her head. "We should be supportive, not protective. I'm sorry too Tohru." She said with a tear. "I don't do well with change."

"That's okay. I'm sorry too for getting angry." Tohru said, as she let out a sigh of relief. They all hugged and made up.

The bell rang for start of classes. Yuki took Tohru's hand and they went into the classroom. There were many gasps of air, and cries of anguish amongst the girls of the class, as Yuki and Tohru sat down together. Saki and Arisa sat around them, and Yuki and Tohru were still holding hands.

Momiji and Haru had left for their classrooms, after showing Minae and Ryou where to go. It was going to be a very strange day for sure.


	12. Chapter 12

Authors Note

Sorry for not updating sooner, but I just never found time to write...(plus I had writer's block...'(please forgive me! bows head) I've decided to change my story a bit, please don't get angry at me! I got so discouraged because I just got my computer back at Christmas, but the whole system had been upgraded, which was a good thing, but then when I was trying to open chapter thirteen on my new computer…that was bad! SO I completely lost my Fruits Basket story, and had to get the chapters from online sigh So I totally lost confidence in my story and had the hardest time thinking up something to write! Then a miracle happened, instead of trying to remember that awesome chapter thirteen that I lost (and trust me, it was the best chapter I'd ever written, I just couldn't reproduce it!). I decided to go in another direction…SO I've changed a bit of this chapter, so that it'll fit in with my new idea. Hope you like it! Sorry again for the super long wait!

Luv Abby

**Chapter Twelve**

At lunch Yuki had a meeting with the student council, and Tohru went with her friends for lunch. She kissed Yuki when they were to be parted. "Bye! Have a nice lunch!" Tohru said waving bye to Yuki.

As soon as he was out of sight, the PYF (prince Yuki fanclub) girls came over to Tohru. "So Honda! Fess-up! What's going on with you and the Prince!"

Arisa stepped in front of Tohru. "They're dating can't you see?"

"That's not possible! You've got him under some sort of spell! Witch!" Matoko screamed at Tohru.

Tohru cringed. "I'm not a witch...I didn't even make the first move either!" Tohru whispered to herself.

"What was that? What did you just say?" She screamed again

"Ummm, Yuki kissed me first...sorry, I can't help who he loves." Tohru said meekly.

"He kissed you first?" A silence fell over the group as many hearts were shattered in the three seconds it took for it to sink in. "He's really in love with her...she's not even pretty!"

"What?" Haru asked as he came up behind the girls. "Tohru not pretty? Are you girls out of your mind? If Tohru wasn't already taken...well, I'd take her right here, right now..." Haru smiled his black smile.

Momiji and Kyo ran around the corner and slammed into Haru. He fell over into the girls, but luckily, they all scattered out of the way soon enough.

Tohru cringed-up for a second, but saw that everything was fine, and let out a sigh of relief. She cringed again when she saw that Haru was black.

"Kyo you bastard! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" He shouted at Kyo.

"Shut-up you cow! Keep talking like that in front of Tohru and I'll pound you!" Kyo shot back.

Momiji had crept around to Tohru's side. "Hey, Momiji, what made Haru turn black?" She whispered into his ear.

"Oh, a boy was hitting on his sister, and he went all black on him. Kyo got there just before Haru... well, I think you know. Then he heard the name Honda being screamed by a girl, and Haru rushed over here." Momiji filled in.

Kyo and Haru were pulling up their sleeves and getting ready to fight when the principal walked around the corner. "Hey! Now boys! Leave your family squabbles at home!" He said prying them apart with considerable strength.

Haru was still black though, and when they were brought into the Principal's office for fighting at school. Haru went black on the Principal.  
Shigure took the call and went to the school to sort him out. Haru was suspended, and when Shigure took him and Kyo home, Kyo pounded him on the head so that he changed back to White Haru.

When Tohru and Yuki got home, Tohru had to go right back out to work. She ran upstairs and grabbed her work clothes and ran out the door after making herself a quick sandwich. She was already running low on time, and had to run most of the way to work.

When she got there she was very out of breath. So she sort of collapsed on the floor. She was fine after a drink of water and a few minutes.

She put on her uniform, and began working. She took it a bit easy, because she was still out of breath, but her work was as efficient as usual and she soon picked-up the pace a bit.

Momiji came around later that evening close to the end of her shift to see his father. "Oh! Hi Tohru! How's work tonight?" He asked helping her push the trolley of cleaning products.

"Really good! I had to run here that I was so out of breath I don't know how I was able to work tonight! But I feel great!" She said cheery. Her face was a bit flushed from working so hard.

"Well that's good! I gotta go see my dad before momma gets here! He really wanted to see me. I don't know what it's about though, see you Tohru! Don't forget about Go-Karting tomorrow!" Momiji waved as he ran to the door to his father's office.

"Good luck!" Tohru called after him.

Tohru finished work, and walked out into the cool fresh night air. She saw Yuki standing outside waiting for her. He smiled lovingly at her when he saw her all flushed. "Hey Tohru!" He called her over to him. He kissed her cheek and took her hand.

"Did you get dinner all right?" She asked.

"Yeah, we ordered out. Are you feeling all right? You look a bit flushed." Yuki asked concerned. He kissed her forehead to check her temperature. It was hot.

"Oh I'm feeling fine, just tired that's all. I was working really hard and I had to run all the way here, and because I was late, I couldn't have a drink before I started. I'll be fine once we get home and I can lie down." Tohru said simply.

This didn't convince Yuki, he was still worried about her health. He didn't say anything about it again though, until they got home.

Tohru walked into the house and completely skipped the kitchen. Yuki looked after her as she walked towards the stairs.

"Tohru. You should have something to eat. We ordered out for everyone, and saved you some." Shigure said not looking up from his paper.

"No it's fine. I'm not hungry anyways. I just need to do my homework and go to sleep." Tohru said. It was Friday, she didn't have to do her homework today, but she wanted to get it done because she was going Go-Karting tomorrow and then on Sunday she was working again.

"Alright. Good night then Tohru!" Shigure called to her.

"Goodnight everyone!" Tohru called down from the top of the stairs just before she disappeared in the hallway to her bedroom.

Yuki joined Shigure at the table. "I think she has a fever. She felt warm when we were walking home." He told Shigure with concern daring to break in his tone.

Shigure's face showed no concern however, "I wouldn't worry about her Yuki, she's probably just tired." He said turning the page of his newspaper. "Hey Yuki look! My book is at the top of the list!" He said excited.

Yuki looked horrified and left the room quickly. He heard shouts of "Hey! It wasn't _that_ one!" from Shigure who was still reading the paper.

"Come on guys! I've got all the tickets!" Momiji shouted over to Tohru, Yuki, Arisa, Saki, and Kyo as they walked into the Go-Karting Park.

Tohru smiled brightly when she saw Momiji. "Hey!" She called to him as he sprinted over and leapt into the air. He landed directly in front of Tohru and they clasped hands and jumped up and down on the spot.

Kyo's hand flew to his head and he looked away. He turned back and pushed Tohru and Momiji towards the track before they made complete fools of themselves. "Come on already!" He shouted, "The sooner we get started, the sooner I can beat that DAMN RAT!"

"I suppose some of us need to rely on hopes and dreams...though, it's a shame they'll be shattered." Said Yuki coldly while walking to the line-up and grabbing a helmet.

"Shut-up!" Kyo retorted and grabbed a helmet also, and lining up behind Yuki.

Tohru giggled quietly, while she struggled with finding a helmet that fit her, and ended-up having to use a child's helmet because her head was so small.

"That's okay Tohru! I've got a kid's head too!" Momiji comforted her.

They all got into the go-karts, and started racing.

Both Kyo and Yuki took off with fervor, Yuki in the lead. Kyo coming up behind him. Momiji and Arisa took off after them, while Hana puttered along behind at her own pace. Tohru on the other hand, was going very slow, seemingly scared of going too fast, but she soon sped up, and started laughing.

The afternoon was going very well, Yuki beat Kyo five times, and they tied twice.

Arisa beat them both seven times, after forcing them both off the track.

Momiji was having a blast and Hana also.

Tohru was far behind them all, and Arisa could see that two guys were boxing her in against the shoulder. She was half the track behind everyone.

Kyo and Yuki noticed too, and raced to save her. By the time they had gotten there, Tohru had been forced off the track and was waiting to be helped back on. The guy ran over and pushed Tohru back onto the track, and re-started her engine. "Oh thank-you so much!" She exclaimed and slowly started moving again. The two guys were just coming up behind her again and moved to force her off the track.

"Hey there girly, looks like you could use a couple of pointers on how to drive properly." Said the one in front.

"Oh, I thought I was doing okay, but if I'm doing something wrong, you could teach me how to drive better!" Tohru exclaimed, not quite sure if they were sincere or not.

"Heh hear that Keori? She wants us to teach her how to drive!" The one in front shouted back to the one behind Tohru.

"Well this should be fun! First lesson, getting out of the way!" Keori announced and moved to ram Tohru's kart.

Before Tohru had time to react, she'd been sandwiched between the two karts.

Yuki and the others had finished their race by now, and were waiting for Tohru at the finish line. Kyo turned to spot where Tohru was, and when he saw what was happening he jumped into his kart again and sped off to help her. Yuki was seconds behind him.

Tohru was trying to stop by slamming hard on her brakes, but this had little effect because she was being pulled by the two other karts. She was screaming and pushing down on her brakes so hard that the pads had worn off, and not it was metal against metal. Sparks started flying from her wheels and smoke was billowing behind her kart. Her engine caught fire and Tohru became hysterical.

By now, the other two had realized their mistake, and were trying to brake and pull away from Tohru's kart but they were stuck, and soon the fire spread.

The gas tanks were so close to the engines that it would only be a matter of time before they ignited.

"We have to get out of here!" shouted Keori through the smoke. He ripped off his belt and he and his friend jumped out of their karts landing on the grass on either side of the track.  
Tohru was stuck in the middle and her seatbelt was jammed, there was nothing she could do as the gas tanks exploded and threw her off the track.

She landed on the grass, her arm twisted in the wrong direction and broken. The skin on her back and hands was badly burned and her leg was broken. Shrapnel rained down on her and she fell unconscious from the pain.

Yuki and Kyo jumped out of their karts and ran to her side as soon as they got there.

"Tohru! Please be alright!" Yuki cried as he lifted Tohru's unconscious body from the ground. "Hurry and get an ambulance!" he yelled at Kyo.

Kyo nodded and ran off to do so.

Haru, Momiji, Arisa and Hana ran up to Yuki and Tohru, to see if she was all right.

"Is she going to be okay?" Momiji asked, voicing everyone's concerns.

Arisa took one look at Tohru, and whipped around to find the guys that had done this to her. "Where are those two punks! I'm gonna kill them!" she exploded.

"Yes, I will $#& them with my electric waves." Hana joined her as she and Arisa started in the direction of the two boys lying in the grass.

"Get her to the hospital Yuki!" Arisa called back to him, before tearing off after the two boys.

Yuki nodded and began running towards the entrance, making sure not to accidentally hug her, and transform.

The ambulance arrived shortly, and Yuki went with her in the ambulance.

A/N: So I hope you all liked it! Don't worry, I'm not going to make things that bad! So as for the next chapter, I'm warning you! MAJOR SPOILER! lol thanks to my best friend Jyde, who's constantly readying spoilers and telling me all about them! I think there's 6 chapters left until the end of fruits Basket, that's released in Japan, and she's read the translations…so…if you don't want to read spoilers, then don't read the next chapter… Well that's all for now! I won't be too long updating this time!

One more thing…PLEASE REVIEW! I'm DYING to get feedback! Well byes!


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: This chapter contains a MAJOR SPOILER! There, you've been warned. Now, before I go on with my chapter, I'm going to need to do a little explaining. clears throat  SO, in the lasted chapters Tohru was hospitalized because she fell off a cliff…well, Kureno was hospitalized because Akito stabbed him, and that knife wound comes into this chapter, because it's mostly about Kureno and Arisa…If you don't know who Kureno is, he's the rooster, and he's broken the curse… along with Momiji and Hiro, but I'm not putting that in my story…I don't think…lol Well anyways, enjoy the chapter! 

Recap from last chapter: "Is she going to be okay?" Momiji asked, voicing everyone's concerns.

Arisa took one look at Tohru, and whipped around to find the guys that had done this to her. "Where are those two punks! I'm gonna kill them!" she exploded.

"Yes, I will $#& them with my electric waves." Hana joined her as she and Arisa started in the direction of the two boys lying in the grass.

"Get her to the hospital Yuki!" Arisa called back to him, before tearing off after the two boys.

Yuki nodded and began running towards the entrance, making sure not to accidentally hug her, and transform.

The ambulance arrived shortly, and Yuki went with her in the ambulance.

**Chapter 13**

Kyo, Haru and Momiji hurried back to Shigure's house to tell him about what had happened to Tohru. Once they arrived, Momiji burst out with all the details about Tohru's Go-Karting accident.

"Oh Shigure! It's Awful! Tohru's in the hospital! We have to go see her now!" Momiji cried.

Shigure popped his head around the door, having been sitting at his desk and actually working for a change. "Tohru? Is she alright?" He asked, uncharacteristically serious. He immediately came out into the hall where they had accumulated.

"I don't know! Her kart exploded! We called an ambulance, and Yuki went with her!" Momiji declared, "We have to go now! She could die!" With that said, he ran out to the car and got in.

Shigure immediately put his shoes on and rushed after him, with Kyo and Haru not far behind him.

Yuki was there when they arrived at the hospital, Hatori was with him and was in the process of assessing Tohru's condition. It didn't look good at all.

In truth, Hatori didn't work at the hospital where Tohru had been taken, but he was her family doctor because since she lived at the Sohma house it was just easier that way.

"This doesn't look good." Hatori mumbled while looking through the files that had been in the folder on the door. "Broken arm, leg, ribs, third degree burns on her back and hands, fractured skull, dislocated shoulder." he continued. "On top of all that, she's in a coma. I'd be surprised if she recovered at all…" he mumbled.

"What did you say? Shut-up or I'll put you in a coma!" Kyo shouted, balling his fists at Hatori. "She'll live!"

"Quiet!" Hatori silenced him with a stern look. He walked over to Tohru and examined her head and body. He sadly stepped away. "There's nothing that I can do for her here. If she were at the Sohma hospital then I could keep a closer watch on her, but you'd need to get her transferred."

"Do it then!" everyone shouted in unison.

The next day Tohru was transferred to the Sohma hospital, everyone felt a bit more reassured even if her condition hadn't changed.

Arisa and Hana came to visit and sat solemnly by Tohru's bedside, talking to her in subdued tones, not wanting to wake the sleeping Prince Yuki.

Yuki had been ordered to get some rest, but he hadn't wanted to leave Tohru's side. Instead he had brought a couch from the lounge into Tohru's room, and had fallen asleep on it.

"Arisa, her waves are so weak and they're not getting any stronger." Hana whispered, her tone filled with desperation and concern.

"She'll recover! I know she will! She has to live! I promised her mother that I'd look out for her and take care of her! I promised…" Arisa cried, she rested her forehead on Tohru's bed beside her hand and sobbed.

Tohru's breathing became stronger, "Arisa…" she breathed, her voice was too weak to talk. Hana and Arisa snapped their heads up and jumped out of their chairs to stand beside Tohru's head on either side of the bed.

"Tohru! You're alright? Don't move! You're not supposed to be up yet!" Arisa whispered franticly.

"Oh Tohru I knew you wouldn't die!" Hana added joyously, tears threatening to fall from her misty eyes. "I will go tell the doctor." she announced, and left in search of Hatori.

Hatori was at the front desk, having just seen a patient about a knife wound, when Hana approached him silently. "Tohru has awoken." she said quietly, startling Hatori slightly.

"Has she?" he asked not quite believing that she could have regained consciousness so soon after her accident.

"Yes, she has. Come and see for yourself since you don't believe me." she replied, turning and making her way back to Tohru's room with Hatori not far behind her.

Arisa was talking in hushed tones to Tohru about her crush Kureno, and how she was so sad that he hadn't been to see her in a long time. She quickly stopped talking when Hana returned with Hatori.

"Doctor-sama, thank-you! Tohru was awake for a short time, but she fell asleep again." Arisa explained quietly, not wanting to wake Tohru or Yuki.

"Thank-you, but I will examine her now, if you could just go and have a seat in the waiting room." Hatori asked, and shut the door behind them when they left. He knew that Yuki would sleep through the whole thing, as he was a very heavy sleeper, and didn't bother waking him.

"Arisa, I've suddenly become aware that Megumi is awaiting my arrival at his piano lessons. If Tohru awakens again, tell her that I hope she will recover soon." Hana bid farewell to Arisa as she left.

"Sure Hana. Say hi to Megumi from me! I'll call you later!" Arisa waved goodbye to Hana. "I think I'm going to find a vending machine." she pondered out loud to herself, before wandering around to find a drink machine. It was a small hospital, she noticed, and it didn't have many rooms. 'It must be a private hospital, family owned perhaps?' thought Arisa. She was just wondering whether there was a cafeteria at all when she came across a drink machine. Grinning openly, she grabbed enough change out of her pocket to buy a fruit punch. Just as she was about to take a sip, a door opened and a man stepped into the hallway. He was facing her, and looking very familiar.

"What are you doing here Arisa?" It was Kureno.

Arisa was so in shock that she dropped her juice box. "Kureno?"

_flashback_

_Arisa was working late at the convenience store, her second job. Not many people came in around 9:30, so this guy really stuck in her memory._

"_Oh I'm terribly sorry." said the man, his voice muffled by the mountain of packages he had piled in his arms. He'd bumped into Arisa while she'd been stocking up the shelves._

"_I'm fine, but it's dangerous to carry all that. You should put those in a basket." she replied and pointed to the stack of baskets sitting at the end of the aisle._

"_Basket? O-Oh. Of course. How silly of me." he replied, "Thank-you for your kindness." he said and bowed respectfully to her. As he was doing so, all his bags slid to the floor. _

"_WAH!" exclaimed Arisa._

"_Aaaugh…aw, crap. Look what I did…" he mumbled while getting down to pick up the fallen food items. _

"_HA! Ah ha ha!" Arisa laughed, "Ah ha ha! Is this for real! Is there really someone who does the same things **she** does?" she sat down and started helping him collect his things. "Oh, I'm sorry. Oh that was funny! You really should put all that in a basket!" _

"_Ah…yeah…" he answered a bit sheepishly._

"_Here. Now try not to be so absent-minded." Arisa scolded. _

_The next day on her break from her job at the coffee shop, Arisa spotted him again. 'No way! It couldn't be!' "Wait!" she shouted as she ran off after him, grabbing the back of his shirt. _

_He turned around with a startled look in his eye. "Ah, um…you're the girl from the convenience store." he said upon seeing her. _

"_Yup!" Arisa replied panting from her sprint. "That's me, all right. This is such a coincidence! I'm surprised!" _

"_Are you alright? You're gasping…"_

"_I'm okay, just a little out of breath. I saw you from behind and I didn't want to loose sight of you…so without thinking, I just took off in pursuit! Ah haha! I'm not making any sense am I? The heat must be getting to me…" Arisa laughed as her stomach let out a great growl. _

"_Are you hungry?" he asked_

"_I haven't eaten my lunch yet." Arisa heard her stomach making gurgling noises. "Crap if I get any hungrier, I'll be in a crazy bad mood!" she complained_

"_No worries, it is lunchtime and I haven't eaten either. Since you're here, why don't we eat together? My treat." he said happily._

_He took her to lunch, she found out that his name was Kureno. Then they got to talking about their lives, he was 26, 9 years between them. He'd never been to a convenience store before, his life was work and sleep. _

"_It was really unusual that I went to the convenience store that night. I usually don't do pointless things." he started "So on the other hand, when I get days off like this, I don't know what to do with myself." _

"_Are you happy living like that?" _

"_I'm happy. I have everything I want. I'm content. I'm sure I'm more content than anyone…"_

"_Then in that case, you should look happier when you smile." Arisa responded. 'I felt it today and when I first saw him. That smile of his…it's an incredibly lonely smile' Arisa thought to herself, before feeling like he thought that bumping into her was pointless. "I'm sorry! I'm sure it was pointless. Even though you and I met during that wasted time. Maybe I'm just a stupid girl, but that didn't feel like a waste of time to me! Meeting at the convenience store, eating soba like this, ever since I met you I've thought, maybe it was more than coincidence that you bumped into me. I couldn't get you out of my mind! Because I thought, maybe our meeting meant something! Because…I was Happy!" Arisa raised her voice. With a start she stood up "Thanks I'm leaving!" she stormed out of the restaurant._

"_Arisa wait!" _

"_What makes you think you can start calling me by my first name, bastard? Don't follow me, don't talk to me—I'm mad as hell right now!"_

"_Eh? But- Please calm down. Okay..? Please don't cry." Kureno said as he followed her down the street. _

"_I'm NOT crying!" shouted Arisa. She stopped with her back to him. _

"_I'm sorry, I spoke without thinking! I was happy too that you spoke to me, really! I…wanted to see you too, ever since that night." 'I couldn't get you out of my mind either' Kureno thought to himself as he looked at her brightening face. _

"_O-okay heh heh" Arisa replied. _

"_Are you blushing?" Asked Kureno as he saw a bright red blush all over her face. _

"_Shut-up!" Arisa replied, playfully kicking his shin. 'Now that's a real smile…' she thought as she peered up at him. _

"_You are blushing!" Kureno stated. He suddenly caught a strand of Arisa's hair and placed his hand on her cheek, drawing ever closer. _

_Arisa gazed up into his eyes, and watched as he drew away and began walking down the street once more. 'It's like he just said "I love you"'…_

_end flashback_

He walked over to her.

Arisa's eyes watered. She brought her hand up and slapped him across the face, hard. "How could you do that to me? You're such a JERK!" tears were falling in streams down her face. "I waited for you! I-I thought…" she couldn't finish her sentence because she was crying too much.

"Arisa." Kureno spoke quietly, lovingly. He reached over and pulled her close to him, and kissed her passionately.

When they pulled apart, Arisa's anger had dissipated. She stared back at Kureno shocked.

"I'm sorry Arisa. I really am sorry, but there was nothing I could do! Nothing I can do…" he gazed at her with sorrow.

"What do you mean?" Arisa asked.

"I can't ever see you. I want to so much, but I can't…" he said longingly.

Arisa's eyes watered again. "So that's it? That kiss, was just nothing?"

"No it was everything! Arisa…I live in a world of shadows, and secrets! I don't want to drag you into that!" he spoke quietly, not wanting to be overheard.

"I don't care! I love you!" she said back.

"Arisa please you have to listen to me! They would kill you! I don't want you to die!" he whispered hoarsely, while glancing around him.

"What? What do you mean Kureno?" Arisa asked seriously.

Kureno looked quietly down the hall, and pulled her into a room. "My family has a very dark secret and if any one discovers it, Hatori will wipe their memory, or, in some cases…you would be killed. There's a curse on my family Arisa. That is all I can tell you, so please, for your own safety, don't seek to know more."

"But…" Arisa protested.

"Just promise me you won't go looking for trouble!"

"Kureno, I…I don't understand! What curse?"

"Just promise me!" Kureno insisted.

"I-"

"Please Arisa! I don't want to loose you! I love you, just promise me!"

"I promise I won't go looking to know about the curse." Arisa replied, she could see how important it was to him by the look in his eyes when he'd told her that he loved her.

"I'm sorry, I really do want to keep you with me always, but to protect you, I have to estrange myself from you…I'm so sorry my love…" he spoke as he leaned in and kissed her again.

He released her, a single tear shed from his eye. "Goodbye" he left her then, and walked out of the hospital.

Arisa felt the tears streaming from her eyes, she couldn't stop them.

A/N: well, the flashback is from the actual Fruits Basket Manga, Volume 9 (Ayame's on the cover lol) Hope you liked my newest chapter, and I know you've all been waiting forever for it! sorry! runs

Well please review…and I might just update sooner next time…you never know!

Luv Abby


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 

Arisa went back to Tohru's room, only to find that Yuki and the doctor had left. She was secretly glad that Yuki wasn't there, because then she'd have to explain her red and splotchy face, and she didn't really want to do that. Tears were still falling, but she could tell that she was soon going to be all cried out. She knew now that Kureno was from the Sohma family, because he'd implied Hatori in his curse, so that must mean that Yuki and Kyo and Haru and Momiji… Tohru must be involved with it too somehow, and now she was in the hospital! Arisa's mind and thoughts were racing. Tohru had almost been killed! Her thoughts turned to what Kureno had told her. "… If anyone discovers it, Hatori will wipe their memory, or even… you would be killed!" she whispered out loud.

A door opened behind her and she quickly wiped the tears from her face, she hadn't been able to stop them since Kureno had left. She turned her head to see who it was. "Oh, Mr. Honda, hello." she said not surprised to see Tohru's grandfather standing there.

"Arisa, how is Tohru?" he asked as he approached Tohru's bedside.

"She awoke a little while ago, but she's sleeping again, the doctor said not to disturb her." Arisa replied.

"You should go home and get some rest, visiting hours are almost over anyways. If she wakes again I'll tell her you were here." Mr. Honda said. He could tell that Arisa was tired.

"Alright, goodbye." she waved and left the room. Once in the main hall, she realized that it was almost 7pm, she'd spent more time than she'd thought at the hospital. Looking around, she wondered where Yuki and the Carrot top had gone.

Shigure was sitting at the table reading a magazine. Yuki was restlessly doing his homework, every now and then glancing up at the clock. The only reason he'd left the hospital was because Hatori had said to either go home or stop pestering him about Miss Honda. Then Arisa and Hana had run into the hospital, and went to Tohru. Shigure had forced him to return home. Kyo aswell was causing more chaos than good.

"I can't stand this!" Kyo suddenly burst out, causing Shigure to throw down his paper in exasperation. Kyo got up and started walking to the door.

"Where are you going Kyo?" Shigure called after him.

"The Hospital!" he replied.

"Kyo! You'll only cause more trouble for Hatori! Then he might just…Think of Tohru! She needs rest!" Shigure called.

Kyo stopped and turned back. "Shut-up!" he cried, and ran upstairs to the roof.

Yuki sighed impatiently. "When is Hatori going to tell us what's going on?" he sighed again.

"Be patient Yuki. He said that he'd come over as soon as he could." Shigure picked his paper back up and started flipping through it again.

Yuki glanced at the clock again… 7:19pm. He jumped up when he heard a car door slam, and hurried to the front entrance and threw the door wide to see who it was.

"How is she?" he demanded when he saw Hatori.

"She's fine. But she'll be in the hospital for quite a while." he replied, his monotonous tone displaying none of his concerns.

"How long?"

"Long"

"So she's not fine!" Kyo exploded from behind Yuki.

"No, she could have died! She didn't and now she's fine for a case like hers!" Hatori shot back, clearly concerned and frustrated. Yuki was taken by surprise; he'd never seen Hatori like this before.

"What's the chance that she'll…recover?" Yuki asked quietly.

"She has a good chance, but if she slips back into a coma, then…" Hatori didn't want to finish his sentence, for the look on Yuki's face. "She came out of her coma, and now she's sleeping. So there's a really good chance that she'll recover fully." Hatori told them.

Yuki sighed in relief. "Good, she's out of her coma?"

"Yes"

"Marvelous!" Shigure burst from the door. "I can sleep easily now, knowing that our beautiful little flower is going to be okay!"

Kyo came up from behind him and knocked him on the head. "You're impossible!" he sighed, but he too knew that they'd all sleep a little easier now, knowing that Tohru would recover.

"So rough!" Shigure protested as he picked himself up off the ground.

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A couple of tense months had passed, and Tohru had awakened at last. There were points where it looked like she wasn't going to make it, but somehow she'd pulled through, mostly due to Yuki's constant vigil of watching over her intently. She could tell that he loved her so much, and she couldn't stand the thought of leaving him so she fought will all her might to get better.

It was a Saturday morning when she was allowed to leave, and Tohru was surprised to see snow on the ground already. "Whoa! It's already winter?" she asked Yuki, who was holding her hand while they walked home.

"Yes it is almost New Years, just another two weeks." he told her, with mixed emotions. This was a very special year for the New Years celebration, and he couldn't think of a good enough excuse to skip it. The most he could hope for was that Tohru would be able to attend the general festivities at the Sohma house, but he doubted that would happen.

"Ooh! I love the fireworks! I can't wait!" exclaimed Tohru jovially. "Hmm, but I sure have missed a ton of school… It's a wonder that I'll ever be able to catch up…" she sighed, but she wasn't going to let that get her down. "I know! I'll just have to throw myself into my studies!" she exclaimed.

Yuki chuckled "I'll help you aswell Tohru, so just worry about getting your strength back in time for New Years." he advised with a smile.

Hand in hand they walked home through the snow kissed streets, each wondering what New Years was going to be like this year.

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Shigure knocked gently on the door to Hatori's house. Now that Tohru was better, Hatori had returned to his normal life, which involved leaving many of the Sohma doctors to look after the hospital and him to look after Akito. Right now, he was home, and in a fairly foul mood aswell.

The door opened and Hatori looked right into the jovial face of the person he least wanted to see right now. "Hello Shigure." he said, with his usual bored tone, and admitted him into the house.

"Hatori! Tohru is completely healed now, thanks to everything you did to save her! I just thought I'd come all the way here to thank you myself, I would have brought Tohru along aswell, but I thought that all this walking in the cold would make her catch a cold." Shigure chatted happily.

"That's good, she should ideally be resting in bed." Hatori added. Pouring two cups of coffee, he handed one to Shigure and they sat down at the table.

"Ahh, I just can't wait for New Years, especially this year too!" Shigure exclaimed as he inhaled deeply the wondrous aroma of coffee.

"Don't talk to me about New Years." Hatori replied bitterly.

"Why ever not Hatori? It's your year this year! I am absolutely overflowing with anticipation to see your dance! Will you please show me? I promise I won't tell anyone!" begged Shigure.

"No." answered Hatori simply.

"Awe please!" begged Shigure intently. He simply loved that Hatori had to dance this year, seeing as how it was the year of the Dragon. There was another reason why he loved this year aswell, and he was sure that something very special was going to happen.

"Isn't there some other reason why you came all the way here, than to just thank me and make a nuisance of yourself?" asked an annoyed Hatori. The sooner Shigure left, then the sooner he could get back to his work.

"I suppose, since Akito did call me down here for something…" sighed Shigure disappointedly, knowing the whole time that Hatori wouldn't ever willingly dance in front of anyone. "Well, I guess I should let you get back to practicing for your dance." he sighed dramatically, receiving a bitter glare from Hatori. Walking over to the door, he put on his coat and went to leave, stopping halfway out the door and turning back. "Hatori, I can't wait to see your dress." he grinned and shut the door, hearing the tinkle of breaking china from inside. Chuckling, he made his way through the grounds towards where Akito was, wondering what he wanted this time.

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Akito observed Shigure walk into the room, with a kind of bitter silence. This was a special year, and special years required that every member of the Zodiac be present. He did not want a repeat of last year, when both Kyo and Yuki had decided not to show.

"Shigure, I'm so glad you came." said Akito with his smooth silky tone, and smiled brightly.

"My dear Akito, it's wonderful to see you looking so well! Just in time for New Years aswell!" Shigure commented, noticing the focused expression on Akito's face.

"Yes, New Years, precisely what I wanted to talk to you about." smiled Akito, he could always trust Shigure to know exactly what he wanted to talk about. "Yuki and Kyo are not permitted to be absent from this year's festivities, under no circumstances." he said.

"I will try my best, but the only reason they stayed home last year was because Tohru was alone for New Years. Perhaps if you invited her this year, Yuki and Kyo would have to attend." suggested Shigure thoughtfully, it was funny how everything fell into place exactly how he wanted it.

"Hmmm, yes. Do that then, invite Tohru to the celebration." Akito agreed with a smile. As usual he got his way, at least he could be glad about one thing. "You may go now Shigure."

"Very well, goodbye Akito." Shigure said and left, his suspicions confirmed. Nearing the gate, he looked back upon the Sohma house with contempt at the general loneliness about the place.

This year, would see twelve years that the spirits of the Zodiac animals had been living together in the same plane. The Year of the Dragon, how ironic.

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A/N: Hey everyone! It's been so long since I updated this story, and now the end is so near I can taste it! Exciting isn't it? Well I hope you like the chapter, and sorry about the wait. Luv Abby


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